By Albert Amateau
For the first time since last June when Laurence Gluck announced that he intended to take the Independence Plaza North complex out of the Mitchell-Lama program and raise rents to market rate, I.P.N. Tenant Association leaders Wednesday indicated that an agreement was imminent that would let all tenants remain in their homes.
“We hope to have an agreement that the board can recommend to all tenants,” the association said in a 9 p.m. statement that also announce a general tenants meeting for 7 p.m. Mon. March 8 at the Borough of Manhattan Community College Theatre 1. “Our attorneys will be at the meeting to explain the agreement and to answer questions,” the statement went on.
Neil Fabricant, tenant association president, declined to give particulars about the terms and conditions of the I.P.N. exit from the middle-income Mitchell-Lama program. But he said there was an understanding on all of the major issues.
Ethan Geto, a consultant for the tenants association who said the previous week that he was “cautiously optimistic” about an agreement, said on Thursday, “We’ve made substantial progress and I’m optimistic – I’ll throw away the ‘cautiously’ – that by early next week we’ll agree on a way to protect all incumbent tenants. We’ve resolved the core economic issues and we’re hammering out the language details of a formal agreement.”
Maureen Connelly, a spokesperson for Gluck, said the landlord would not comment at this time.
Gluck previously estimated that two thirds of I.P.N. tenants would be eligible for federal enhanced vouchers protecting them from steep increases to market rate rents. The vouchers, known also as sticky vouchers, require eligible tenants to pay rent equal to 30 percent of family income, or their present rent, whichever is greater. I.P.N. tenants who earn less than 95 percent of median income — $41,000 for a single person and $60,000 for a family of four, are eligible.
Voucher tenants must also conform to federal standards on family size and apartment size. So for instance, a couple whose grown children have moved away may have to find a smaller apartment.
For the 300 or so I.P.N. tenants who earn more than 95 percent of median income, rents will be set in the agreement that Gluck and the Tenants Association are expected to sign early next week.
Currently, 1,200 families in the city receive sticky vouchers and 500 are in the process, according to the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development. Those numbers, however, do not include the estimated 900 tenants that are likely to be eligible when I.P.N. leaves the Mitchell-Lama program.
On the Upper West Side, Heywood Towers, a 188-unit building on Amsterdam Ave. at 90th St. left the Mitchell-Lama program in October and tenants negotiated the terms and conditions of the conversion with the owners, The Seavey Organization.
“I think it has worked out well,” said Doug Kleiman, president of the Heywood Towers Tenant Association. Since Jan. 1, about 125 tenants have been receiving sticky vouchers. A Landlord-Assisted Program negotiated with the Seavey Organization set rents at a “reasonable” level for the 63 tenants not eligible for vouchers, Kleiman said. He declined, however, to specify the “reasonable” rent, but he said it was significantly lower than the market rate set by the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
“Most people have stayed,” Kleiman added. “Even some who were not legal tenants of record, like subtenants, were able to negotiate with the landlord.”
Kleiman said Heywood Tower was lucky to have a reasonable landlord. The Seavey Organization was a pioneer in Mitchell-Lama development and seven years ago built an 80/20 building on Eighth Ave. at 20th St. in Chelsea. “After 20 years, the landlord could have thrown us into the cold water of market rent,” he said. “I think I.P.N. is lucky too. The tenants were rough on Gluck at a meeting I attended last October as a member of the Mitchell-Lama Task Force, but I think he’s a reasonable businessman,” Kleiman said.
Fabricant was pleased at the progress of negotiations that began last autumn but he sounded a note of caution since the deal has not been completed. “I don’t believe anything’s a deal until it is a deal and I don’t see any signatures yet,” he said.
Albert@DowntownExpress.com
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