Class Action Filed Over New York City, HPD’s ‘Deliberate Indifference’ in Operating Mitchell-Lama Housing Program

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Four individuals have filed a proposed class action against the City of New York, its Department of Housing Preservation and Development (NYHPD) and the agency’s commissioner over allegations that the parties have for years failed to assure that the city’s affordable rental and cooperative housing program—the Mitchell-Lama program—was administered “in a fair manner consistent with the law and the requirements of due process.”

Residing in the Bronx, Mount Vernon and Brooklyn, the plaintiffs claim that while the stated aim of Mitchell-Lama is to provide income-eligible middle-class New Yorkers with reasonably priced housing, the program’s waitlists for such have grown beyond problematic. The plaintiffs claim that although they paid application fees to obtain spots on the waiting lists for Mitchell-Lama developments, they were improperly removed from the waitlists and denied housing on the grounds that “they failed to respond when contacted about an open apartment.” 

The suit explains that the rules governing the Mitchell-Lama program stipulate that housing applications must be maintained in the order in which they were received or by lottery. Further, the lawsuit states, all Mitchell-Lama housing developments must keep a list of applications that includes contact information for each applicant and notes every action taken with respect to each applicant. The case says Mitchell-Lama rules generally provide that apartments must be offered in descending order of priority to:

According to the 29-page case, the plaintiffs were never contacted about openings at Mitchell-Lama developments nor provided any notice that they were being dropped from the waiting lists. New York City and the NYHPD, the lawsuit claims, have been “deliberately indifferent” with regard to operating the Mitchell-Lama program “since at least 2009,” repeatedly failing to follow apartment allocation procedures and evenly enforcing program guidelines meant to ensure fairness among housing applicants.

Further still, the defendants, as the lawsuit tells it, have been well aware of their failings with regard to Mitchell-Lama for years yet “have done almost nothing to prevent Plaintiffs and others on the waiting lists from being improperly passed over” for housing units. The complaint relays that the State of New York and its Comptroller have audited the NYHPD’s Mitchell-Lama waiting list issues numerous times, finding in 2004 that while the party’s efforts were “adequate overall,” steps could be taken to strengthen the overall integrity of the waiting lists. Subsequent audits done in 2005 and 2008, the lawsuit says, found NYHPD’s implementation of Mitchell-Lama lacking, with the 2008 report stating the defendants’ oversight of the program “does not provide sufficient assurance that housing companies consistently comply with” program rules.

According to the lawsuit, internal NYHPD audits from 2012-2017 “confirm that serious problems exist in many Mitchell-Lama buildings,” concerning in particular the allocation of apartments to those on internal and external waiting lists. From the lawsuit: 

“During that time period, HPD conducted forty-five (45) separate audits of different buildings. The vast majority of audits found that apartments were improperly awarded and/or that succession rights were not properly followed – resulting in the denial of apartments to otherwise qualified applicants and the removal from the market of apartments that should have been made available to qualified applicants.”

The complaint can be read below.