Thursday, September 21, 2017
Opinion: Living The Mitchell-Lama Dream
Public housing was once the egalitarian dream of urban planners in post-war New York City, uniting people from all walks of life in a social experiment that prospered. Today, these developments are under attack from systematic neglect and deliberate sabotage by predatory developers looking to cash-in.
As a pillar of the city’s most critical affordable housing stock, Mitchell-Lama is in crisis. We hear it every day in community meetings, on the streets across Brooklyn, and on social media; and we see it in buy-outs, displacement and rising rents. This essential housing supply faces threats including conversion to market-rate housing and a lack of upkeep. . .