Mitchell–Lama Housing Program

The Mitchell–Lama Housing Program is a non-subsidy governmental housing guarantee in the state of New York that supports limited-profit rental and cooperative housing for moderate- and middle-income residents. It was established in 1955 and is jointly administered by New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) and, for city-supervised developments, the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). Under the program, local jurisdictions may acquire property by eminent domain and provide it to developers to build housing for low- and middle-income tenants. Developers receive tax abatements while they remain in the program and low-interest mortgages subsidized by the federal, state, or New York City government, and are guaranteed a limited return on equity.

Between the mid-1950s and late 1970s, the program helped produce more than 130,000 apartments in New York City alone and a total of 269 developments with over 105,000 apartments statewide, making it one of the most significant sources of postwar, non-public affordable housing in New York. The program has been described by housing scholars and advocates as a major experiment in limited-equity and limited-profit housing and a touchstone for contemporary debates over social housing and the preservation of middle-income housing in high-cost cities.

The program was based on the Morningside Gardens housing cooperative, a co-op in Manhattan's Morningside Heights neighborhood that was subsidized with tax money.