1956–57

In 1955, State Senator MacNeil Mitchell and Brooklyn Assemblyman Alfred A. Lama proposed a law to the New York State legislature that would provide low-interest loans and realty tax abatements to private developers and cooperatives for the construction of urban middle income housing. After the law was passed, the resulting housing was referred to as Mitchell-Lama housing. The Park Reservoir complex in Van Cortlandt Village is one of New York City’s first Mitchell-Lama cooperative apartment houses.