The subject of housing in New York can be maddeningly complex, even bordering on impenetrable. This conversation between housing researchers Jonathan Tarleton and Oksana Mironova attempts to clarify matters by drilling down on those programs that supply affordable housing, from rent-stabilized apartments to NYCHA complexes to the 105,000 Mitchell-Lama units developed for “middle-income” tenants. In 2025, Tarleton published Homes for Living (Beacon Press), a study of two Mitchell-Lamas in Brooklyn and Manhattan on the verge of privatization: the St. James Towers in Clinton Hill and the Southbridge Towers at the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge. Homes for Living, which received a positive write-up in the Mitchell-Lama Residents Coalition’s newsletter (“a tough crowd,” notes Mironova, approvingly), forms the basis of the following exchange. But the discussion also grapples with live developments, parsing real constraints on the Mandani administration and how it still can work to shape housing policy for the better. —THE EDITORS
Lama Mia!
Oksana Mironova was born in one collapsing empire and now lives in a different one.
Jonathan Tarleton now blows his meager writing earnings on rent in the seat of that empire.
