100 signatures reached
To: NY State Governor Kathy Hochul, NY State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, New York State Senate Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins
Keep Rochdale Village Affordable!!!
We are writing as concerned shareholders of a Mitchell-Lama cooperative at Rochdale Village in Jamaica, Queens to urge you to take immediate action to prevent an unfair financial burden from being placed on Rochdale's residents due to a proposed Carrying charge increase. The lowest increase being 22.3% starting as soon as April 2025, and then another 4.5% in 2026. The highest increase is 34.7% starting April 2025, and then another 5% in 2026.
Shareholders are now being forced to shoulder a debt caused by the mismanagement of funds by Summit Management Company, and this increase is not only unjust but also unsustainable for many of us. As you are aware, Mitchell-Lama housing was established to provide affordable housing to working-class New Yorkers, but the ongoing mismanagement and financial instability threaten that very mission. The responsibility for resolving these financial missteps should not fall on the residents, many of whom are already struggling due to the economic impacts of COVID-19. Shareholders who fell behind on their carrying charges due to the pandemic should not be penalized further by rent hikes that they simply cannot afford.
Shareholders are now being forced to shoulder a debt caused by the mismanagement of funds by Summit Management Company, and this increase is not only unjust but also unsustainable for many of us. As you are aware, Mitchell-Lama housing was established to provide affordable housing to working-class New Yorkers, but the ongoing mismanagement and financial instability threaten that very mission. The responsibility for resolving these financial missteps should not fall on the residents, many of whom are already struggling due to the economic impacts of COVID-19. Shareholders who fell behind on their carrying charges due to the pandemic should not be penalized further by rent hikes that they simply cannot afford.
We urge you to intervene and work toward a solution that does not place the financial burden on the shareholders. NYC officials must take responsibility and provide relief for those in arrears due to COVID-19 while holding accountable those responsible for financial mismanagement. Additionally, increased oversight of management companies handling Rochdale Village is necessary to prevent future financial mismanagement.
We are asking for your leadership in ensuring that Rochdale Village remains an affordable housing option for those who need it most. We know that as the highest elected public officials in NY State that you have used your power to pass legislation to provide $80 million in NY State funding to Mitchell-Lama housing cooperatives in their time of need, in New York's 2024-25 Fiscal Year Budget.
(https://nyassembly.gov/Press/?sec=story&story=110102)
But we also know that since this funding was passed as part of the New York State budget on April 20, 2024, to our knowledge, not one dollar of aid has been provided to any of NY's Mitchell-Lama Cooperatives that this funding was intended to help. Even Coop City which was publicly promised $51 million in direct state aid has not yet received this aid (https://assembly.state.ny.us/Press/?sec=story&story=110377).
We are appealing to you as N.Y. State leaders to take whatever actions are necessary to make sure that these taxpayer funds actually get provided to your largest Mitchell-Lama cooperatives to prevent them from solving their financial burdens on the backs of the very working class New Yorkers that built and supported these communities over many decades. These funds are URGENTLY NEEDED and we are the very people this program was created to help in the first place. Please keep your promises to fight for truly affordable housing in NYC and throughout our great state.
But we also know that since this funding was passed as part of the New York State budget on April 20, 2024, to our knowledge, not one dollar of aid has been provided to any of NY's Mitchell-Lama Cooperatives that this funding was intended to help. Even Coop City which was publicly promised $51 million in direct state aid has not yet received this aid (https://assembly.state.ny.us/Press/?sec=story&story=110377).
We are appealing to you as N.Y. State leaders to take whatever actions are necessary to make sure that these taxpayer funds actually get provided to your largest Mitchell-Lama cooperatives to prevent them from solving their financial burdens on the backs of the very working class New Yorkers that built and supported these communities over many decades. These funds are URGENTLY NEEDED and we are the very people this program was created to help in the first place. Please keep your promises to fight for truly affordable housing in NYC and throughout our great state.
Below you will find an explanation of what we know about the financial crisis that our Cooperative is currently facing, which will further explain the need for urgent action by NY State:
Why is this important?
We are not experts about exactly what has gone wrong here, but what we can tell you is that Rochdale Village is currently controlled by an unaccountable and potentially corrupt management company named Summit Management, which has had a stranglehold on pretty much all decision-making of importance here and has for many decades, under one name or another. We believe that their terrible financial decision-making on numerous occasions and their overall mismanagement have led directly to the crisis we are all now facing.
Every time Cooperative residents ask Summit Management representatives why we are in such a financial mess, we get a different answer. They keep pointing to new causes without any accountability for their own actions or inaction. Below are just some of the reasons they have given:
● Summit Management, over many decades, without keeping residents fully informed or consulted, has arranged a crushing debt burden through a $195 million mortgage loan with Wells Fargo bank, which is a predatory balloon mortgage deal. Rochdale Village now has a huge multi-million dollar liability on this predatory high interest loan. In the January 2025 issue of the Rochdale Village Bulletin, the Cooperative's newspaper, they reported that Rochdale Village has a $31,626,760 liability in payments on their Wells Fargo loan, in part because a portion of their payments were deferred for 6 months between May and October 2020. After giving this temporary deferral, Wells Fargo, then massively and without warning, raised Rochdale Village's monthly loan payments by nearly 25%.
● Summit Management Company also has racked up a $13 million debt to the NYC Water Board on their water bills with large fines for late payment and non-payment. This large water bill is also obviously greatly increased by corrupt NYC Mayor Eric Adams' decision to push through a $1.4 billion hidden tax on the NYC Water Board which was then passed on to us in the form of the the highest water board rate hike in 14 years in early July 2024.
● At the most recent Board of Directors meeting, we also learned that Summit Management had negotiated a sweetheart rent deal that allowed Chase Bank, one of the largest banks in the world, allowing them to benefit from a lease deal that guarantees only an 8.3% rent increase over the next 5 years, or just a 1.6% increase per year. All of these generous terms are being offered to Chase behind our backs while Cooperative residents are at the same time being told that there is no alternative to forcing us to accept an historic Carrying charge rate increase of 22.3%-35% in just 1 year!!!
● We have also learned that Chase Bank is not the only sweetheart rent deal Summit Management has negotiated recently. Apparently, other commercial tenants like Key Food supermarket and others have signed similarly generous rental leases.
● On top of the lack of fair market income coming from these commercial tenants, Rochdale Village owns vacant property that has been vacant for many years and even worse has sold property that was converted into other forms of housing nearby that Summit Management claims they don't even have the sale paperwork for!
We are not aware of any other business would have the ability to survive if they conducted business this in this way. And Summit Management's complete lack of accountability and transparency obviously raises many ethical and legal concerns as well.
● Summit has also claimed that there is a crisis of residents in arrears on their Carrying charges going back to the COVID-19 pandemic. The latest numbers given claim a loss of $6 million in arrears on Carrying Charges as of June 2024.
Personally, we believe that NY's elected officials at all levels must also take responsibility for and provide relief and aid for those in arrears due to COVID-19 and other economic or health issues, because without such an intervention, these residents will eventually become unhoused and will very likely need much more expensive aid and services from both NY City and NY State.
Obviously, these economic problems and their causes are not unique to Rochdale Village. But, we believe that our elected officials must do whatever they can to support our community members and work with us towards a solution to this crisis that does not place the financial burden of all of these crises on the overwhelming majority of our shareholders, who played no role at all in the decision-making that led to these crises in the first place.
We also believe that increased oversight by elected officials of the ways in which Summit Management Company is running Rochdale Village is URGENTLY NECESSARY to prevent future financial mismanagement and crisis. Their complete lack of accountability and effective stranglehold of all decision-making power is completely unacceptable and undermines the very mission of the NYS Mitchell-Lama program, which was founded on the "Rochdale’s Principles" to build Cooperative and truly democratically run communities in which community members have equal voting rights and participate in all decisions.
We ask for your leadership in ensuring that Rochdale Village remains an affordable housing option for those who need it most. We appreciate your time and consideration and look forward to your response on how your office plans to address these urgent issues.
We prefer that you respond via email, as it is not feasible for our entire community to participate in a single phone call.
Furthermore, we believe an in-person meeting is warranted to discuss these matters openly. Such a meeting would allow for full transparency, ensuring that the truth is clearly presented and that the current status of Rochdale Village’s business practices and financial management can be properly reviewed.
We seek swift and thorough investigative action on our behalf to ensure that this community not only survives but thrives.
Every time Cooperative residents ask Summit Management representatives why we are in such a financial mess, we get a different answer. They keep pointing to new causes without any accountability for their own actions or inaction. Below are just some of the reasons they have given:
● Summit Management, over many decades, without keeping residents fully informed or consulted, has arranged a crushing debt burden through a $195 million mortgage loan with Wells Fargo bank, which is a predatory balloon mortgage deal. Rochdale Village now has a huge multi-million dollar liability on this predatory high interest loan. In the January 2025 issue of the Rochdale Village Bulletin, the Cooperative's newspaper, they reported that Rochdale Village has a $31,626,760 liability in payments on their Wells Fargo loan, in part because a portion of their payments were deferred for 6 months between May and October 2020. After giving this temporary deferral, Wells Fargo, then massively and without warning, raised Rochdale Village's monthly loan payments by nearly 25%.
● Summit Management Company also has racked up a $13 million debt to the NYC Water Board on their water bills with large fines for late payment and non-payment. This large water bill is also obviously greatly increased by corrupt NYC Mayor Eric Adams' decision to push through a $1.4 billion hidden tax on the NYC Water Board which was then passed on to us in the form of the the highest water board rate hike in 14 years in early July 2024.
● At the most recent Board of Directors meeting, we also learned that Summit Management had negotiated a sweetheart rent deal that allowed Chase Bank, one of the largest banks in the world, allowing them to benefit from a lease deal that guarantees only an 8.3% rent increase over the next 5 years, or just a 1.6% increase per year. All of these generous terms are being offered to Chase behind our backs while Cooperative residents are at the same time being told that there is no alternative to forcing us to accept an historic Carrying charge rate increase of 22.3%-35% in just 1 year!!!
● We have also learned that Chase Bank is not the only sweetheart rent deal Summit Management has negotiated recently. Apparently, other commercial tenants like Key Food supermarket and others have signed similarly generous rental leases.
● On top of the lack of fair market income coming from these commercial tenants, Rochdale Village owns vacant property that has been vacant for many years and even worse has sold property that was converted into other forms of housing nearby that Summit Management claims they don't even have the sale paperwork for!
We are not aware of any other business would have the ability to survive if they conducted business this in this way. And Summit Management's complete lack of accountability and transparency obviously raises many ethical and legal concerns as well.
● Summit has also claimed that there is a crisis of residents in arrears on their Carrying charges going back to the COVID-19 pandemic. The latest numbers given claim a loss of $6 million in arrears on Carrying Charges as of June 2024.
Personally, we believe that NY's elected officials at all levels must also take responsibility for and provide relief and aid for those in arrears due to COVID-19 and other economic or health issues, because without such an intervention, these residents will eventually become unhoused and will very likely need much more expensive aid and services from both NY City and NY State.
Obviously, these economic problems and their causes are not unique to Rochdale Village. But, we believe that our elected officials must do whatever they can to support our community members and work with us towards a solution to this crisis that does not place the financial burden of all of these crises on the overwhelming majority of our shareholders, who played no role at all in the decision-making that led to these crises in the first place.
We also believe that increased oversight by elected officials of the ways in which Summit Management Company is running Rochdale Village is URGENTLY NECESSARY to prevent future financial mismanagement and crisis. Their complete lack of accountability and effective stranglehold of all decision-making power is completely unacceptable and undermines the very mission of the NYS Mitchell-Lama program, which was founded on the "Rochdale’s Principles" to build Cooperative and truly democratically run communities in which community members have equal voting rights and participate in all decisions.
We ask for your leadership in ensuring that Rochdale Village remains an affordable housing option for those who need it most. We appreciate your time and consideration and look forward to your response on how your office plans to address these urgent issues.
We prefer that you respond via email, as it is not feasible for our entire community to participate in a single phone call.
Furthermore, we believe an in-person meeting is warranted to discuss these matters openly. Such a meeting would allow for full transparency, ensuring that the truth is clearly presented and that the current status of Rochdale Village’s business practices and financial management can be properly reviewed.
We seek swift and thorough investigative action on our behalf to ensure that this community not only survives but thrives.
How it will be delivered
By email to: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]