"When it exited Mitchell-Lama in the 2000s, its new landlord plunged it into decay and neglect, forcing immediate maintenance issues, Mamdani said, referring to an affordable housing program with a 20-year subsidy. The situation was getting worse and likely would have entered a terminal spiral were it not for Dina. She organized the tenants, she advocated on their behalf and when they bought the mortgage with the help of a $5.6 million loan from HPD, they reclaimed control over their own homes and their own futures."
"That wasn't quite true—tenants didn't buy the mortgage, nor have they ever controlled the building. But Levy wasn't going to correct her boss in public on her first day. Instead, she said, We were also engaged in an epic, years-long battle to stop a predatory landlord from acquiring and demolishing their homes. Also not quite true."
"She did not stop the landlord, Mark Karasick, founder of the Manhattan-based firm 601W Companies, which today has $7 billion in assets, from acquiring 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, a 102-unit building completed in 1969. And he never planned to demolish it."
Mayor Zohran Mamdani used 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, the Bronx building where hip hop began, as a venue to announce his new housing commissioner Dina Levy. He presented the building as a model for affordable housing preservation, claiming tenants bought the mortgage with a $5.6 million HPD loan and reclaimed control. However, this account is inaccurate. Tenants never purchased the mortgage nor controlled the building. Levy's role in stopping a predatory landlord from acquiring and demolishing the property is also misrepresented. Mark Karasick's 601W Companies did acquire the building, but demolition was never planned. The official narrative conflates tenant organizing efforts with outcomes that did not occur, oversimplifying a complex housing situation.
Read at therealdeal.com
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