With a total area of over 120 acres, the Rochdale Village cooperative complex in southeast Queens can accommodate four CitiFields and still have space for a Little League pitch.
With 25,000 residents, it is one of the biggest affordable housing complexes from a bygone age in New York City: Mitchell-Lama was a state initiative that was established in 1955 and targeted middle-class citizens by capping the amount of money that could be used to buy an apartment and restricting the price at which units could be sold.
Residents of Rochdale Village usually pay a purchase price of no more than $23,000, with maintenance expenses averaging between $1,000 and $1,800 per month.
However, those numbers will likely rise as the complex deals with the same financial challenges as previous Mitchell-Lama complexes in the city. These include large debt payments, increased insurance premiums, neglected maintenance that has only gotten more expensive, and what many locals say are poor choices made by the management business and all-volunteer board of directors.
According to the co-op’s documents, Rochdale Village is anticipating a $11.4 million deficit in the upcoming year. In January, the board of directors authorised a 22.3% increase in monthly fees for residents to make up the deficit. The state’s housing agency has yet to approve that decision, which would compel the co-op board to make an even more drastic move. In addition to a long list of other costs, board members have examined bids as high as 35% to cover facade repairs and millions of dollars in overdue water bills.
It’s simply this anxiety. What should I do? “Imani Whitfield, a 27-year-old nursing student, lives in one of the 5,860 apartments in Rochdale Village with her sister,” she added. “We need to purchase groceries. I must get school materials. This is all expensive. And now a potential rise. How should it function?
In order to guarantee long-term affordability, the Mitchell-Lama scheme was named after its two principal proponents in the state legislature. However, it has been more than 40 years since the program constructed a new development in New York City. Additionally, that once-innovative source of affordable housing is getting more expensive for many of the 100,000 Mitchell-Lama homes that remain in New York City. Last year, maintenance expenditures for tenants at the Bronx’s Jaime Towers increased by 40%. After enduring a 43% increase, residents of Brooklyn’s Cadman Towers chose to leave Mitchell-Lama and enrol in an alternative affordable housing program last year.
According to Niederman, most Mitchell-Lama inhabitants find the hikes difficult to accept. According to data from the city’s most recent housing survey, the median income of owners of Mitchell-Lama co-ops and other comparable housing units that limit resale profits was $77,000, which is 40% less than what households of two normally make in the New York City area.
Jean Hall, the chair of the Rochdale Village Board, directed Gothamist’s enquiries to Dean Roberts, the development’s lawyer. The state’s housing agency, the Division of Homes and Community Renewal, could raise the number even further, he said, calling the 22.3% rise “the least bad option” among the board’s considerations.
“DHCR could ultimately tell us 38% if they so desired,” Roberts stated.
Members of the board stated during a Monday meeting that the agency has proposed a possible 57% rise. According to Roberts, that was not a formal proposal, but rather an illustration of the worst-case situation.
The housing agency’s representative, Charni Sochet, stated that boards “have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure the financial integrity and self-sufficiency” of the co-op, but she declined to comment on the complex’s ongoing application for cost hikes.
This is an inheritance for some people’s families.
At Rochdale Village, Summit Property Management manages both capital projects and daily operations. The decision to stop paying the large water bill for the enormous property beginning in late 2020 has been attributed by the board to Summit. According to the Department of Environmental Protection, residents now owe the city $17.7 million in interest and past-due bills as a result. The board authorised a search for a new property manager on Monday. Several attempts for comment were not answered by Summit.
Due to the impending increase in monthly maintenance expenses, residents say they are upset with the board and Summit. However, they also criticise the state for failing to act to stop the financial issues at low-cost cooperatives like theirs from getting worse.
Reaghan Smith, a mental health therapist who lives with her mother in a three-bedroom flat they purchased twelve years ago, called it “egregious.”
Smith, 50, expressed concern that many present residents will be forced to leave due to their inability to pay the increases.
Many people must relocate and depart; some may not even be allowed to remain in New York, she said, because for some, this is an inheritance for their families.
Working-class New Yorkers were primarily harmed by the price increases, according to John Ferretti, a subway train conductor who founded the organisation Keep Rochdale Village Affordable with his wife Adena.
Ferretti remarked, “You’re talking about state and city employees who keep this city and state running.” “How can the government abandon us?”
These problems are sweeping the entire city of Mitchell-Lamas.
Adrienne Adams, Speaker of the City Council
Advocates and even a number of political officials have called on the state to give Mitchell-Lama co-ops direct funding, low-interest loans, and financial advice to boards, and their worries are in line with those recommendations.
During a meeting last year, Manhattan Democrat state Assemblymember Harvey Epstein told state housing officials, “It’s probably one of the most successful programs in the state’s history as a middle-income housing program.” “I’m wondering why there isn’t enough oversight now, because it’s kind of like the Wild West there.”
The majority of the projects that DHCR manages are financially secure, according to Senior Vice President Becky Koepnick, but each is regarded as a separate private business that must balance its budget.
“Everything that is still under DHCR’s supervision is at least 45 years old, so naturally, many of them have antiquated building systems that require replacement or repair, and many of them have urgent physical needs,” she stated.
Serious corruption and poor management plague other Mitchell-Lamas. Three cooperatives under the city’s housing agency’s supervision received almost $1.6 million in unexplained or improper payments, according to a 2024 report from the state comptroller’s office.
The state is now employing a professional consultant to advise boards on projects and finances in response to requests from legislators and co-op residents.
A task committee has also been established by state and local elected leaders to devise strategies for maintaining Mitchell-Lama projects. Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, a Democratic mayoral candidate representing Rochdale Village, is part of the task committee and held a closed-door discussion with locals on Tuesday evening.
Regarding the impending maintenance cost hike, Adams stated in an interview with Gothamist that “for some families it is going to be an astronomical challenge for them because this is not the affordability that they planned on and none of this is their fault.” “These problems are sweeping the entire city of Mitchell-Lamas.”
According to her, the Council is working to increase Mitchell-Lamas’s financial support in the city budget. The new state budget calls for halving the shelter rent payments—the property taxes paid by complexes in the program—and allocating $110 million for capital renovations at Mitchell-Lamas in New York City.
Additionally, locals have asked Governor Kathy Hochul to meet with them so they may talk about the issues that Rochdale Village and other Mitchell-Lamas are facing. Hochul’s spokeswoman refrained from commenting on the request or the complex’s financial troubles.
Many residents in Mitchell-Lama are also eligible for city programs that freeze maintenance and rent fees for seniors making less than $50,000 annually and for individuals with disabilities.
According to an annual state report, roughly 530 Rochdale Village residents made use of those services last year. Others make slightly more than the limit, such as Marva Henderson, an 81-year-old retired teacher. Henderson claimed to have spent 48 years living in her co-op.
Regarding the suggested maintenance hikes, she remarked, “This sounds like it’s extremely serious.”
Some locals say they’re still working out how to pay for the additional expenses associated with housing.
“That’s a significant overnight jump. Long Island Rail Road employee Chandra Worrell stated, “I know a lot of people can’t swing that.”
According to Worrell, she has already stopped using Netflix and other streaming services in order to save money, and she will now need to find other ways to make do without them.
“I guess no fun things,” she remarked. “If my savings are all being used for rent, then that’s it.”
