Tenants Speak Out on Urgent Need to Enact COPA to Stem Displacement and Preserve Deeply & Permanently Affordable Housing
NEW YORK, NY – On Wednesday, tenants, community and affordable housing organizations joined Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, and Council Members Harvey Epstein and Kayla Santosuosso at City Hall for a press conference and speak-out calling on incoming Speaker Julie Menin and the New York City Council to override former Mayor Adams’ eleventh-hour veto of the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA) and enact the legislation without delay.
COPA gives community land trusts and other qualified, mission-driven housing organizations the first opportunity to make a competitive offer when certain multifamily apartment buildings—including those in physical or financial distress or with expiring affordability requirements—are put up for sale. New York City has lost hundreds of thousands of rent-regulated apartments as predatory landlords—often backed by aggressive bank financing—turned people’s homes into speculative bets.
New York’s housing market is increasingly dominated by deep-pocketed, all-cash buyers who can move quickly and quietly—snapping up buildings in days, long before tenants and preservation buyers even know a sale is underway.
COPA, which the City Council passed with overwhelming support in December, levels the playing field so mission-driven buyers have a real chance to compete, preserve affordability, and stop displacement before it becomes inevitable. San Francisco’s COPA legislation, enacted in 2019, has preserved permanently affordable housing for over 1,000 residents, making it one of the city’s most powerful tools for stabilizing neighborhoods.
At the event, tenants and community groups shared first-hand accounts of how COPA will help curb displacement, preserve deeply affordable housing, and allow long-time residents to remain in the neighborhoods they have helped build—at a moment when speculative real estate practices continue to accelerate the city’s housing crisis. COPA is a core component of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s housing platform—an agenda voters endorsed at the ballot box.
Former Mayor Eric Adams vetoed COPA on his final day in office. Under the City Charter, the Council—now led by Speaker Julie Menin—has 30 days to override the veto and enact the legislation.
“New York City cannot allow the actions of a lame duck mayor, acting to appease powerful real estate interests, to override the will of the City Council and the communities it represents,” said Deyanira Del Rio, executive director of New Economy Project. “We urge the Council to defend its institutional integrity by overriding this veto and enacting COPA without delay to address the City’s urgent housing affordability crisis.”
“Tenants want the opportunity to stay in the apartments they’ve called home for a long time – but in one of his last acts as Mayor, Eric Adams deprived New Yorkers of that opportunity,” said Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. “I urge the City Council to overturn this egregious veto and enact Council Member Nurse’s COPA bill. Thank you to the incredible organizations and advocates who showed out today and every day for years to champion this essential legislation.”
“The City Council must override Eric Adams’ veto and enact COPA. We know from firsthand experience how transformative this legislation will be,” said Al Scott, Founding Member of the East New York Community Land Trust. “The ENY CLT worked with tenants and donors to directly purchase our first building from a neglectful former owner, in 2024. By enacting COPA, the city can support more community purchases like this, of over-leveraged rent stabilized housing stock, to ensure that these buildings are kept affordable and under tenant control. These acquisitions are proven to work and directly improve New Yorkers’ lives.”
“New York Communities for Change members need legislation like COPA now more than ever”, said Malcom Galpern-Levin, Community Organizer with New York Communities for Change. “Tenants across the city are facing a housing crisis and deserve better than being shuffled from one slumlord to another. We urge the city council and Speaker Menin to override Eric Adams’ veto and pass COPA once and for all!”
“To protect tenants living in distressed buildings and buildings where affordability restrictions are about to vanish, the Council must act now to overturn the former mayor’s veto,” said Paula Segal, Senior Staff Attorney at TakeRoot Justice. “COPA is a common sense strategy to provide tenants in these buildings with partners in preservation and control of their homes. The bill is crafted to target larger buildings and is limited to buildings that landlords choose to sell.”
“We applaud the City Council for having passed COPA, a bill that offers New Yorkers a powerful new tool to stabilize and protect existing affordable housing.” said Andrew Berman, Executive Director of Village Preservation. “Eric Adams’ last minute veto at the behest of the real estate lobby was disgraceful and an affront to the integrity of the City Council. We hope that Speaker Menin will take this matter to a vote so that the Council can override the veto and strike a blow on behalf of tenants and all New Yorkers.”
“As a long-time community planning and research organization committed to addressing the city’s affordability crisis, Pratt Center joins those calling on City Council to override former-Mayor Adams’ veto of its landmark COPA legislation,” said Sylvia Morse, Director of Research and Policy at Pratt Center for Community Development. “Our research has identified COPA as a pivotal tool for preserving housing for permanent affordability, including through Community Land Trusts, and to level the playing field for qualified nonprofits to meet their communities’ housing needs.”
“After years of advocacy, New Yorkers finally saw COPA pass with a strong City Council majority – only to have Eric Adams kill this crucial bill on his last day in office,” said Memo Salazar, co-chair of the Western Queens Community Land Trust. “Our CLT’s efforts depend on COPA to succeed; more than once have we worked with tenants on buying their building, only to see the property sold before we could make an offer. COPA would level that playing field and give New Yorkers permanently affordable homes owned and managed by the community itself.”