Former Kips Bay Mitchel-Lama Tenants Get Rent Relief: City

KIPS BAY, NY — City officials negotiated a deal with a former Kips Bay Mitchel-Lama development to keep the building affordable for low- and middle-income tenants for the next 75 years, City Councilman Keith Powers announced Thursday.

Owners of the Waterside Plaza development, located on the East River near East 25th Street, agreed to rent reductions, rent freezes and limited rent increases for tenants of 325 apartments in the building, city officials said. The agreement was made as part of a lease extension between Waterside Plaza and the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

"After a year of negotiation, we have come to a deal that will address the rent burden of existing tenants and preserve affordable housing for 75 years. This is a meaningful deal to the hundreds of families that have and will continue to call Waterside Plaza their home," City Council Member Keith Powers said in a statement.

The new agreement will provide relief Waterside Plaza tenants who stayed in the building after it left the Mitchel-Lama program in 2001. These tenants had been subject to rent increase as high as 7.75 percent in the years following the building's exit of the program, which was created in 1955 to guarantee middle-income housing in New York state.

Tenants earning more than 165 percent of the area median income — an annual salary of $120,615 for an individual and $154,935 for a family of three — will have rent increases capped at 2.25 percent or the rent guidelines board recommendation if it exceeds 2.25 percent. The increase cannot be greater than 4.25 percent.

Rent freezes will be given to tenants earning less than 165 percent of the area median income who pay less than 30 percent of that income in rent. Tenants earning less than 165 percent of the area median income who pay more than 30 percent of income toward rent will receive rent reductions that will set their new rent at 30 percent of their income.

This chart breaks down the terms of the agreement:

The leader of the Waterside Plaza Tenants Association said the new deal will be especially beneficial to seniors who stayed in the building they called home for decades despite rent increases.

"NYC’s HPD engaged with our community, while shaping a 75-year affordability deal, to learn the needs of our seniors and craft an innovative plan that provides for lasting housing security," Tenants Association President Janet Handal said in a statement.

Regulated units that become vacant during the duration of the new agreement will be entered into a housing lottery, city officials said.

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