Council Member Brewer on Mitchell-Lama to HDFC conversions and Clinton Towers

Councilmember Brewer.

Sorry, Councilmember Brewer, just before you ask your questions, I just wanted to address Councilmember Aldable that citywide,

not with respect just to the folks living in Michilama, but we have 158,214 households that are eligible for scree or jury, but only 67,132 households received the benefit in 2023.

So Councilmember Dinowitz passed a great bill to try to bridge that gap, but it's a really big gap in service for people.

Councilmember Brewer.

Thank you.

Thank you, Julie Walpert, for 30 years of help, or 40 years.

I lost track.

I don't know anybody else, but I do appreciate all of Julie's work.

And also, you know, Jackie and Katie and Dick Heiler and everybody who's been doing this.

Bob Willis, may he rest in peace.

My question is twofold.

First of all, I was not a big supporter of Camden Towers going from Mitchell Lama to HDFC.

So I hope that's not going to happen in the future.

Can you update me?

Yeah, we don't have any Mitchell Lamas at the moment that are trying to go from 2 to 11.

We don't have any that are trying to go from 2 to 11.

But are you interested in getting rid of the policy altogether?

Because this is supposed to be about affordability.

I mean, I would just actually say that I don't think we are in a position to say that policy should go away because I would always put it back on the residents and the shareholders and what the people actually want in their buildings.

And when you speak to some people there, they feel that it was a...

I know, but I'm just saying we also...

Say that.

Okay.

I don't agree with it.

We have to be, you know, think bigger because people are, want to make money.

And I understand that, but I still think it should return.

I want that.

Maybe we'll put it in writing and try to pass a law because we don't want any more conversions like that.

Number two.

Changes in 2021 have, have slowed down the amount of conversions.

Okay.

I still worry about the future.

Lots of same situations.

I've got, let's see, I've certainly got Trinity House, and they want to postpone their July 29th because they have such a large increase being projected.

Same problem.

So I'll contact you, but I want to have more discussion about these things because it's huge.

Even though they haven't had it in a while and it's not a bad owner, it still needs to be postponed.

So we need to do that.

Clinton Towers, a mess.

So that's the same issue.

Who's overseeing the construction?

Every single one.

single day I get calls from the residents.

How does that pan out?

Why is it?

I think we need, and I suggest this to the chairs also, we need like a round table, everybody sitting in the room, state, city, those of us who have Mitchell Lamas.

I've been doing this work since 1978.

That's how long I've been doing Mitchell Lamas.

And it has to be a discussion.

We want Mitchell Lama 2.0.

But we can't figure out 1.0 yet.

So I would love to see this roundtable take place.

But meanwhile, Clinton Towers is a mess.

The board is a mess.

The management is a mess.

All my friends, I know them all.

But it's not working.

So how do we handle something like that?

The balconies, the lobby, the money, everything.

The Con Ed bill.