NYC Responds to Lack of 421A Program with MIMI Proposal
The Adams administration has proposed a city-funded version of the long-time expired New York State 421a Tax Abatement program that incentivized affordable housing development. While expected to be effective on its own, the administration described it as a complement to and not a replacement of the state’s program which it is pressing Albany to reinstate. Dubbed the Mixed Income Market Initiative (MIMI) program, the subsidy designed for “high-opportunity” neighborhoods, “meaning wealthy areas where market-rate rents are high enough to subsidize affordable ones,” will be awarded on a case-by-case basis, in contrast to 421a which was as-of-right; and will also “require developers to provide high levels of affordability.” Although the city has yet to “say how much public money is being set aside for it,” it will not use Low Income Housing Tax Credits, of which the city has a limited supply, and instead “aims to use public resources more effectively by combining city subsidy with Article XI property tax exemptions with private financing sources and revenue from market-rate units.” In January and February city officials will collect feedback from the real estate industry about how to design the subsidy.