Barker Terrace Residents Receive Two-Week Adjournment in Eviction Case

Most of the 10 Mount Kisco residents facing eviction for failing to pay prohibitively higher monthly maintenance costs had their cases adjourned for two weeks so they may find representation or reach an agreement with management.

Nine of the 10 shareholders at Barker Terrace, a 92-unit Mitchell-Lama co-op development, had their cases come before Mount Kisco Village Justice Mark Farrell last Thursday evening. Six of the residents were granted the adjournment until Sept. 12, while three had their cases withdrawn.

Of those three withdrawals, two shareholders have apparently paid the amount that they were in arrears, The Examiner was told, while the third has moved out of Barker Terrace and awaits the sale of the unit.

The tenth shareholder is scheduled to appear in village court this Thursday evening.

Farrell urged residents and attorney Steven Waldinger, who is representing Mount Kisco Middle Income Housing, the entity of record for management, to find a way to resolve the matter that will enable the shareholders to stay but for the building to receive the money it needs to operate the building.

‘If there’s a resolution to be had it would behoove everybody to (pursue) them,” Farrell said shortly before the matter was adjourned.

Residents in the building were hit with a 54 percent increase in monthly charges for the middle-income housing complex last fall, which carries income restrictions in order to live there.

Also, the building was one of five Mitchell-Lama residences outside of New York City where the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (HCR) were criticized last December in a state comptroller’s audit for lax oversight of the property’s condition and finances.

Several of the residents who were in court last week said they had reached out to Legal Services of the Hudson Valley to seek direction.

However, they are looking for legal representation but with the residents’ financial limitations are having difficulty finding someone, said Brenda Tollinchi, a 25-year Barker Terrace resident, after the meeting.

“Everyone has a different situation. Not everyone can pay these increases,” said Tollinchi, who said the largest previous year-to-year-increase during her time living at Barker Terrace was 7 percent.

In her case and also for longtime resident Terrence Gallimore their monthly housing costs have increased well over $500 each to more than $1,500 a month.

While the residents pledged to continue to search for help, including contacting housing advocacy groups, Mount Kisco Village Trustee Karen Schleimer, a real estate attorney who attended the court session last week, said Mitchell-Lama disputes and regulations are a highly specialized area of law that may make finding representation for the residents difficult.

Complicating the situation is which entity is ultimately responsible. An HCR spokesperson told The Examiner earlier this year the agency “has a limited role in overseeing the day-to-day management of Mitchell Lama housing which is privately-owned and managed.”

“The board (of directors) doesn’t make the increases,” Schleimer said. “The HCR (Housing Community Renewal), which is a state subdivision, they determine the increases.”

Schleimer also noted that earlier this year representatives from the nonprofit housing and social services organization Community Housing Innovations (CHI) offered its services to help sign the affected Barker Terrace residents up for a program that catches the residents up on the sum that they owe provided they remain current on their maintenance fees going forward.

However, Carol Meighan, the resident who moved out of Barker Terrace early this summer after she and her husband found subsidized housing in Carmel, said the reason none of the residents who are behind in their charges signed up for the program is that they would be unable to pay the extra $500 to $600 a month, depending on the size of their unit. The back charges owed are generally between $5,000 and $9,000.

“We gave our 90-day notice, and the charges will be deducted when the unit sells,” Meighan said.

It is up to the Barker Terrace Board of Directors to sell the unit, not the shareholder, she said. Meighan expects to receive about $22,000 when the unit sells, but questions whether management will be able to attract new residents to buy. Mortgages are not allowed so new residents would have to pay that sum in cash, which may be difficult given income limits based on the house hold and unit size, Meighan said.