New York City Losing Affordable Housing

"A study to be released today (May 27) by the Community Service Society of New York found that nearly a quarter of the roughly 121,000 apartments built under federal and state subsidy programs dating from the 1960's and 1970's left those programs from 1990 to 2005. The rate of withdrawal grew in the late 1990's and hit its highest level last year.

Another study, released on Thursday (May 25) by the Office of the New York City Comptroller looked largely at losses from the state's Mitchell-Lama program, and found that more than 25,000 units have been withdrawn or have begun that process since 2004. That number is greater than the 24,000 units pulled out in all the years before 2004, the study said.

Both reports suggested that the losses may soon outweigh the effects of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's efforts to build and preserve 165,000 units of low- and moderate-income housing by 2013. But city officials said the 56,000 units that they say the administration has already financed significantly exceeds the number of units lost.

According to city figures, there are about 250,000 units of government-assisted housing in the city, developed through low-income housing tax credits, the Mitchell-Lama program and various federal subsidy programs. Under Mitchell-Lama and similar programs, in return for the government aid, building owners were required to keep rents affordable to low- and moderate-income people for a time, often 20 years, before they could leave the programs."