Battle Brewing Over Proposed HDFC Co-op Reforms

At an overflow meeting of Community Board 11's Housing Committee in East Harlem on Tuesday night, the city’s department of Housing Preservation & Development’s (HPD) proposed rules changes for affordable HDFC co-ops were greeted with loud displeasure. The battle lines are drawn in what is shaping up to be one of the most contentious debates on how the city can best protect and expand affordable housing. In our May issue, we explored the challenges facing HDFC co-ops – and the city’s possible strategies for addressing them

Among the resistance at Tuesday’s CB11 meeting was the HDFC Coalition, which has been an advocate for the city’s 33,000 HDFC shareholders since 1992. The coalition is opposed to HPD’s proposed 40-year Regulatory Agreement, which includes a sales price cap, a lower income cap for buyers, asset limits for buyers, changes in tax abatements, and a requirement that HDFC co-ops hire a professional manager and an HDP-approved “monitor” to enforce the agreement.

“Over-regulating HDFCs would threaten our survival and destroy our equity,” proclaimed a flyer distributed at the CB11 meeting.

The coalition’s position paper on the issue is available here. HPD’s proposed changes will get their next public airing at the meeting of Community Board 3 in the Great Hall at Cooper Union, 7 East 7th Street, on Wed., Nov. 9 at 6:30 p.m.