Speaker Menin on balancing financial viability with affordability
Menin frames the hearing as balancing two responsibilities: preserving Mitchell-Lama financial viability while preserving the affordability that defines the program, and transitions to questioning.
We should be asking whether preservation financing, capital investments, operating subsidies, insurance reforms, refinancing opportunities, and stronger oversight of management practices can reduce the need for significant rent increases.
We should also examine whether HPD's oversight framework provides sufficient transparency and accountability,
whether residents have meaningful opportunities to participate in decisions that are affecting their homes and their livelihoods, and whether existing affordability protections, including proactive SCRI enrollment required under local
law 44 of 2024, are being fully implemented.
Ultimately, this hearing is about balancing two responsibilities that are not in conflict, preserving the financial viability of Mitchell Lama developments while preserving the affordability that defines the very program itself.
These goals must go hand in hand.
I look forward to today's hearing and working collaboratively.
to identify policies which ensure that balance is being maintained.