The Governor’s Commissioner of Housing says her administration is "interested in preserving the maximum extent of affordability" of the Island’s Mitchell-Lama housing – in both the number of units and the period of time they will remain affordable. Deborah VanAmerongen, who chairs the Board of Directors of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) in her capacity as chief of the State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), says that "given market forces," DHCR and RIOC need to be open to discussion on these issues.

"We are troubled by the characterization of us ‘slamming the door on people’ or ‘pulling the rug out from under people,’" she told The Main Street WIRE in an interview late last week.

State Housing Commissioner Deborah VanAmerongen held meetings on methods for choosing residents as RIOC Board members both last week and this week. Clockwise from foreground: Residents Association (RIRA) Chair for Government Relations Margie Smith, RIRA President Matthew Katz, VanAmerongen, David Bauer of the Maple Tree Group, and RIOC President Steve Shane.

"If there are some things that can be done to make the deal(s) better – for either the residents in place or for the people who might be coming to the Island in the future – we’d like to have that conversation," she said, speaking in a conference room at DHCR’s New York offices.

The DHCR-RIOC position affects three of the Island’s original four buildings – Westview, Island House, and Rivercross. The fourth letter in the "WIRE" acronym used to refer to those Northtown buildings, Eastwood, exited Mitchell-Lama under the administration of former Governor George Pataki, apparently leaving the "WIR" buildings to satisfy affordability provisions of the Island’s General Development Plan (GDP).

VanAmerongen suggested that the GDP, part of the lease under which the State controls the Island, which is City property, could be used to deny applications to take buildings out of the Mitchell-Lama program. She also cited ground leases as a tool available to RIOC to encourage building owners to cooperate with the DHCR effort to preserve affordability.

(Without extensions of buildings’ ground leases well beyond 2028, it is believed, owners will be unable to secure commercial mortgages to replace the State-backed mortgages they have under Mitchell-Lama. But Rivercross has already "privatized" its financing and, among residents at Westview and Island House, there is a concern that a new owner with deep pockets might exit the State’s Mitchell-Lama affordable-housing program without a ground-lease extension, then raise rents substantially to make the 2028 ground-lease expiration irrelevant to profitability.)

Resident committees have been seeking to usher their buildings out of Mitchell-Lama and to resident ownership in the case of Westview and Island House, and to full resident control in the case of the Rivercross cooperative, where tenants are the shareholders in the owning corporation. At the two rental buildings, Attorney Charles Lucido (an owner himself) speaks for the owners. He has expressed dismay that a change of administration at DHCR has brought an apparent tightening of the State’s grip on any State-controlled housing. For her part, VanAmerongen said DHCR was seeking incentives to help it "make a deal that is workable for everyone [and] in the best interests" of RIOC, tenants, and – "to the extent possible – for the owners, so that they do have an incentive to be cooperative with us."

Members of resident committees at both Island House and Westview have indicated a strong desire to escape the restrictions of Mitchell-Lama, which they see as incompatible with their buildings’ need for repair and improvement at age 30. Similarly at Rivercross, a Privatization Committee has been counting on a share of profits from apartment sales as a source of funds to sustain affordability while making needed improvements.

In the case of each building, the question amounts to a dividing of a value pie: Owners want a profit they feel Mitchell-Lama promised them after 20 years; residents want some form of equity unrestricted by Mitchell-Lama rules; RIOC wants ground-lease income; the City and State are entitled to taxes or tax equivalency payments; DHCR wants a strong affordability component.

"What I can say categorically is that I don’t think that the current [Westview] plan is really an affordable-housing plan," VanAmerongen told The WIRE. "It protects the current residents [but] how do we get to a point that we do have some assurance that there is preservation going forward?" Later, she added, "The lease goes through 2068. I think we have an obligation to be in compliance with the General Development Plan through that time."

"I am an eternal optimist," VanAmerongen said. "There are a lot of creative minds out there, and people who know real estate who can put together a transaction that will make it work for everyone." She added, "I feel badly for those people who have invested so much time to get to the point that they’re at now, and they feel we’re pulling the rug out from under them. I appreciate the fact that this is a frustration for them."

She expressed a hope that DHCR’s stance will not lead to litigation. In the lead article in the last WIRE (on line at nyc10044.com), RIOC President Steve Shane suggested litigation could take seven or eight years (others estimate two to three) and implied that the threat of a delay might create a bargaining incentive for owners.