Is This the Way to Keep HDFC Co-ops Affordable?

In our May issue, we told you about an HDFC co-op on the Lower East Side that’s fighting valiantly to remain true to the tenets of affordable housing in today’s overheated real-estate market.

Now the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio is proposing new rules for the city’s 30,000 HDFC units that include: keeping income restrictions for buyers; setting caps on the sale prices of units and the assets of buyers; requiring a professional manager and a third-party monitor to oversee operations; and imposing a 30 percent “flip tax” on all apartment sales that would go into the co-op’s reserve fund, DNAinfo reports.

Already the proposed rule changes are meeting with opposition. “There was no shareholder input,” says April Tyler, a shareholder in a Harlem HDFC who has launched a petition drive against the proposals. “A management company or monitor will serve the purpose of an overseer or police officer, (and co-ops) have to pay for it.”

The city says this requirement is designed to address the 27 percent of HDFC co-ops that suffer from mismanagement and are in poor physical and fiscal condition, including unpaid taxes and water bills. HDFC’s tax breaks are set to expire in 2029.