Larry Gluck wasted no time.

On June 26, one day after assuming ownership of the Independence Plaza North housing complex on Greenwich Street, Gluck delivered notices to its 1,330 apartments informing tenants that he had initiated the process to withdraw IPN from the Mitchell-Lama government housing program that keeps rents affordable. Gluck said he hoped to be free of the program by next June. The one-year notification is required by law.

		Although Gluck’s move was expected, some tenants said that the letter came as a jolt. April Lang, a vice-president of the IPN Tenants Association, said that after the notices were distributed she was approached by tenants worried that withdrawal from the program will lead to skyrocketing rents. “I say to people, ‘We have a plan, so relax. We’ve been working on this a long time.’” IPN’s tenant association has been gearing up to try to thwart Gluck’s plans in what they say is a fight to save their homes. In fact, the night before the notices arrived, more than 700 tenants from IPN and at least 20 other Mitchell-Lama developments filled a theater at Borough of Manhattan Community College to show unity in their call for rent protections. The rally’s featured speaker, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, told the cheering tenants that the council
would soon consider legislation seeking to preserve the affordability of apartments in Mitchell-Lama developments, like IPN, where landlords are withdrawing from, or “buying out” of the subsidy program. The IPN Tenants Association and its team of legal consultants have spent months crafting the legislation. Miller later told the Trib that the legislation will be introduced in July, and hearings are expected to take place in September. Councilman Alan Gerson, who represents IPN tenants and has also worked on the legislation, said he hoped that a vote could occur by the end of the year. Gluck’s finalizing of the IPN deal with the complex’s owners, led by Harold Cohn, came a little over a month after the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), which oversees many Mitchell-Lama developments in the city, had approved the sale.
Gluck’s letter to tenants stated, “Our long-term goal is to make improvements in the property’s physical condition, and also to improve the quality of services provided to all of our tenants.” It said that until the buyout is complete, “we will honor and renew existing leases” and that “we will work hard to minimize the transition’s impact on the lives of IPN residents.” As it happened, the day after that letter arrived, a few hundred lower-income seniors and disabled tenants received drastically inflated rent bills, some for quadruple the monthly rent, from Gluck’s company, Stellar Management. Affected tenants were furious, and some said they felt they were being harassed. “I was mortified,” said Ann Coleman, “that they could make a mistake like that.” “They say they’re going to take care of seniors, instead they’re scaring them to death,” said another woman, in her 70’s, who asked not to be named. The rally at BMCC. organized by the Campaign to Preserve Affordable Housing, was intended as a show of political strength and a demonstration of mutual support among Mitchell-Lama tenants from around the city who feel threatened. “It was important for tenants all over the city to look at each other under one roof and see how energized everyone was, and understand that they aren’t alone,” said Neil Fabricant, president of the IPN Tenants Association. The tenants did appear energized. “Save our homes! Save our homes!” they chanted loudly as Speaker Miller strode onstage. Miller said that the Mitchell-Lama program “stabilized communities and helped bring investment to communities, and now the tenants who were pioneers are losing their homes because developers are in a position to make more money on it, and that’s wrong.” The City Council legislation would “bring a little more equity, a little more balance, to this battle,” he said. The proposed bill, which was still being finalized, would make it tougher and more expensive for landlords to pull out of Mitchell-Lama and give more protection to tenants in buyouts. The bill may require landlords to study a buyout’s potential impact on tenants and to show that buildings are in good condition. Another rule being considered would require a landlord to give a tenant association the opportunity to buy a development before it was withdrawn from Mitchell-Lama. IPN’s tenant association says that it can put together the financing to buy the complex, and that a tenant purchase would assure that apartments remain affordable. But neither the former owners nor Gluck have been willing to consider such a deal. “The redevelopment and rebuilding of Lower Manhattan will not begin with the eviction of the tenants who built Lower Manhattan in the first place,” Councilman Gerson said, referring to IPN. The Mitchell-Lama program, created by New York State in the 1950’s, gave developers tax breaks and low mortgage rates in exchange for keeping rents below market levels. But after 20 years (in some cases, as at IPN, the obligation was extended), building owners can buy out from the program by paying off the mortgage, and then convert to market rents. Many around the city are now doing just that. In some cases, tenants have sued to delay or block buyouts. Gluck did not return phone calls seeking comment last month. But he and HPD have repeatedly said that the buyout will have a minimal impact on IPN tenants. They say that based on income levels, about two-thirds will be eligible for government rent subsidies known as enhanced, or “sticky” vouchers, which allow tenants to continue paying rents equivalent to those they paid under Mitchell-Lama. And Gluck has said that he will negotiate reasonable rent increases for the rest of the tenants, who can afford to pay more. The tenant association says that the vouchers do not offer sufficient protection because funding for them can be cut, and that too many tenants will not be eligible. But Fabricant said that the association was creating a committee to assess how eligible tenants would fare after a buyout. Over the next year, Gluck and the tenant association will try to negotiate an agreement. But Fabricant says rent increases negotiated in other buyouts in the city in recent years were too steep. After a year, “if we haven’t succeeded in our negotiation, there will be a lengthy litigation,” Fabricant said at the rally. The city has pledged to try to help the two sides negotiate “a fair deal.” “We have encouraged all the parties at IPN to come to the table and we look forward to productive discussions regarding the maintenance of long-term affordability,” said Jennifer Falk, a spokeswoman for the Bloomberg administration.