NYC Affordable Housing Nonprofit: City Mandates ‘Absolutely Killing’ Organization
One of New York City’s longtime affordable housing advocates is sounding an alarm about the growing financial and regulatory pressures facing organizations trying to provide lower-cost housing.
Her frustration is particularly notable because she operates the kind of mission-driven nonprofit housing model that city progressives have frequently championed as an alternative to traditional landlords.
Ismene Speliotis, executive director of the Mutual Housing Association of New York, or MHANY, says New York City’s numerous housing requirements are placing an increasingly difficult financial burden on her nonprofit.
After 35 years working in affordable housing, however, she says the combination of city mandates, rising insurance costs, housing court problems and difficult tenant situations is becoming increasingly unsustainable.
Her account provides a glimpse at how policies intended to protect tenants can create significant costs even for nonprofit organizations dedicated to keeping rents affordable.
“These unfunded mandates are absolutely killing me,” Speliotis said. “They’re killing me.”
Speliotis is not a conventional private landlord, but instead runs a nonprofit organization focused on providing affordable housing to New Yorkers.
She has also supported policies favored by socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani, including testifying in favor of legislation requiring a “living wage” and benefits for certain construction workers.
Speliotis said one example of the financial burden involves the city’s lead-paint requirements.
During the mid-1990s, MHANY used city assistance to completely renovate an older building, with Speliotis saying the work was extensive enough that virtually everything inside had been removed.
“There were no walls,” she said.
Despite that renovation, Speliotis said the building remains subject to lead testing requirements because of its age.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “Any building before X date gets tested for lead — $150 to $200 per unit.”
Fire protection requirements represent another substantial expense.
Speliotis said MHANY’s smaller buildings are required to have both sprinkler systems and centralized fire monitoring, which she estimates costs between $7,000 and $10,000 annually for each building.
“When you burn toast, the Fire Department comes,” Speliotis said. “When you burn toast a second time, the Fire Department comes again. If they come three times, it’s a $1,000 fine. It’s not fightable.”
Smoke detectors have created another recurring problem because some residents remove the devices after becoming frustrated by alarms.
The missing detectors can then become a violation attributed to the property owner rather than the tenant, The Real Deal reported.
With an upcoming inspection from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Speliotis said she recently purchased another 500 detectors.
“I have 9 million smoke detectors,” she joked, “and a fire escape.”
Even equipment installed for safety can create unexpected expenses.
Speliotis recalled an incident in which a seventh-floor tenant hung laundry from a sprinkler, causing the system to activate and release water throughout the property.
“Ruins the entire building,” she said. “Four hundred thousand dollars in damage.”
MHANY filed an insurance claim following the incident, but Speliotis said the organization’s insurance premiums were already increasing.
Another major frustration involves supportive housing residents referred through New York City’s Human Resources Administration.
Speliotis said some tenants with serious mental health problems can decline the support services specifically funded to assist them, leaving housing providers with limited options when problems develop.
“Even though you have an entire program funded to support them, they don’t have to answer their door,” Speliotis said.
“I have people with enormous mental illnesses, and they’re in housing court,” she continued. “I call the service provider: ‘Why aren’t you helping Mrs. Smith?’ They say, ‘We can’t make her.'”
Speliotis believes residents placed in supportive housing should agree to participate in available services as a condition of remaining in those programs.
Her experience highlights a broader challenge confronting New York City’s housing system: regulations designed to protect residents also carry costs that must ultimately be absorbed somewhere, and Speliotis says even nonprofit affordable housing providers are reaching the point where those expenses are becoming increasingly difficult to bear.
BREAKING: Dolly Parton’s Cause Of Death Revealed: ‘Brief Battle’
Dolly Parton’s death came after a brief battle with cancer, her representatives revealed Tuesday.
The country music legend died Aug. 25 at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville. She was 80.
Parton had been admitted to the cancer center Friday, four days before her death. Her representatives confirmed the cancer diagnosis in a statement to PEOPLE but did not disclose what type she had.
“Our beloved Dolly Parton spent her life and career bringing joy, laughter, hope and integrity into everything she touched. Her unmatched generosity reached the lives of countless people whom she would never meet, yet she was always there to offer a helping hand,” the statement read.
“Whether it be the hundreds of millions of books donated through her invaluable Imagination Library or funding research that helped create a lifesaving vaccine used around the world, Dolly’s unconditional love for all people was the guiding force for her lasting impact. After bravely facing a brief battle with cancer, Dolly departed her Earthly life today at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center surrounded by loved ones,” the statement concluded.
The “Jolene” singer had also been dealing with kidney and autoimmune issues before her death, PEOPLE previously reported.
Just days earlier, Dolly Parton opened up about her declining health and acknowledged that she had put off addressing some medical issues while caring for her husband, Carl.
“As I’ve shared in video messages throughout the past year, I am dealing with some health issues that I just didn’t pay attention to when I was watching over [my husband] Carl. You know, this isn’t the first time I’ve had to manage something like this. Back in the early ’80s, I was down for several months with female issues, and I was struggling with my weight at the time too, so it’s not like I haven’t been through hard times with my health,” Parton told PEOPLE.
Her nephew, Bryan Seaver, announced her death in an Instagram video Tuesday on behalf of the Parton and Owens family.
“My name is Bryan Seaver, son of Cassie Parton, and I’m representing the Parton and Owens family today announcing the passing of my aunt, Dolly Rebecca Parton Dean, Sister, Sis and Granny to one generation and Gigi to the next,” he says in the video.
Seaver, who served as Parton’s head of security for more than two decades, said she had asked him years earlier to deliver the announcement.
“This video announcement is something Dolly asked of me years ago, before I fully absorbed it as a future reality,” he continued. “As her head of security for more than two decades, a role my father Larry held before me, I have imagined the heaviness of this moment but haven’t truly felt it until now.”
Seaver said the moment brought immense pride and heartbreak, but he took comfort in his faith that Parton had been reunited with Carl and other loved ones.
Seaver added: “It is an honor, an honor that is mixed with absolute pride and great sadness. But sadness lies with us, not with Dolly. Dolly has lived in the light and is in the arms of Jesus, surely met by Carl, her parents and countless othe
