Contact: Abby Savitch-Lew, New Economy Project, abby@neweconomyproject.org, 332-222-7317; Patricia Santana, Office of Council Member Sandy Nurse, PSantana@council.nyc.gov
Amid deepening housing crisis, advocates demand passage of COPA to bring land and housing into permanently affordable community control
NEW YORK, NY — More than 150 tenants, community groups and elected officials rallied on the steps of City Hall on Wednesday morning, calling on the City Council to pass the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act, or COPA (Intro 905), sponsored by Council Member Sandy Nurse. The action preceded a key City Council hearing on the bill, at which dozens of community groups, tenants, homeowners, and affordable housing developers testified about the urgent need to pass COPA amid an unprecedented affordability crisis that is displacing lower-income and Black and Brown New Yorkers.
COPA gives vetted, mission-driven affordable housing developers, including community land trusts and other nonprofits working with organized tenants, a first opportunity to purchase certain at-risk multifamily buildings when owners sell. These include buildings in severe physical distress and those where affordability restrictions are set to expire, putting longtime and lower income tenants at risk of displacement. COPA is designed to stabilize and expand the supply of permanently affordable, community-controlled homes, including deeply affordable rentals and affordable cooperative homeownership opportunities.
COPA will give communities an urgently needed tool to acquire, rehab, and preserve at-risk affordable housing for thousands of New Yorkers, as modeled in San Francisco and other cities that have implemented similar legislation. Additional details about the bill can be found here.
A broad coalition of over 200 community, tenant, and affordable housing organizations have championed COPA for years. A majority of City Council members co-sponsor the bill, and Mayor Mamdani has named COPA as a top legislative priority in his 2026 Housing Plan.
Quotes
“New Yorkers need bold solutions that address root causes of our city’s worsening affordability crisis,” said Deyanira Del Rio, Executive Director of New Economy Project. “COPA does exactly that, giving CLTs and tenants a powerful new tool to combat speculation, bring land and housing into community ownership, and build lasting community wealth. We call on Speaker Menin and the City Council to pass COPA immediately.”
“The Community Opportunity to Purchase Act will make our city more affordable for working-class New Yorkers who are being squeezed by the housing affordability crisis,” said Council Member Sandy Nurse. “After today’s Housing and Buildings Committee hearing, we are that much closer to passing the bill. COPA is just one tool to preserve our existing affordable housing stock and help stop the brutal cycle of displacement in our neighborhoods. I am excited to see COPA reach this legislative milestone. Now let’s pass it into law.”
“In an affordability crisis, New York City must do everything in its power to protect the quality and preserve the affordability of the places New Yorkers call home,” said NYC Council Member Pierina Sanchez, Chair of the Committee on Housing and Buildings. “Council Member Nurse’s Community Opportunity to Purchase Act would do just that—opening the door to improved long-term outcomes for communities when building owners decide to sell. At today’s hearing, we will hear this bill within a larger conversation about preservation, strengthened code enforcement, empowering tenants, and the numerous proposals in the Mayor’s Block by Block plan. I applaud Council Member Nurse and the broad coalition of advocates who have refined the bill and have brought a thoughtful and targeted proposal to the table for our consideration.”
“Housing affordability is a major concern for all UAW members and especially for members who rent in the five boroughs of New York City. Unfortunately, status quo housing policies have failed to address one of the root causes of the affordability crisis—predatory real estate speculation,” said Jane Fox, Chairperson, UAW Region 9A NY Area CAP Council. “If we want a city that working-class New Yorkers can call home, we must bring more housing into community and tenant control. UAW Region 9A calls on City Council to pass COPA immediately.”
“For too long, profit-seeking corporations have displaced Black and Brown New Yorkers from their homes,” said Council Member Tiffany Cabán. “COPA will give people the opportunity to turn their buildings into permanently affordable community-controlled homes. We must pass COPA now to mitigate the cycle of displacement.”
“As we continue to face a housing, homelessness, and affordability crisis, we must commit to preserving affordable housing for those who need it most,” said Will Depoo, Senior Campaign Organizer at the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development (ANHD). “COPA provides our communities with a key tool to fight speculation, move distressed buildings into the hands of responsible community stewards, and ensure that public resources go where they’re most needed.”
“Real estate speculators are targeting our most vulnerable neighbors and fueling gentrification at high-speed across our city. COPA is a targeted way to protect some of our tenants from that exploitative industry. NYC is in a housing crisis. We need deeply affordable homes maintained and preserved as a critical part of the strategy. What we don’t need is increased eviction rates and people living in deplorable conditions. That’s why I’m strongly urging my colleagues to join me in supporting the passage of COPA,” said Council Member Alexa Avilés.
“New York City’s affordability crisis is making it increasingly difficult for older New Yorkers to remain in the communities they have called home for decades,” said Lloyd Feng, Associate State Director of Advocacy for AARP New York. “Stable, affordable housing is essential to helping older adults age safely and independently in their communities, surrounded by the people, services and support networks they rely on. COPA would give mission-driven organizations an opportunity to preserve at-risk buildings, protect long-term affordability and help more people age in place. Older New Yorkers helped build this city, and they should not be priced out of their communities by rising housing costs. AARP New York urges the City Council to pass COPA.”
“New Yorkers cannot afford for the City to wait while more buildings are sold into a speculative market that too often turns homes into investment vehicles and pushes working-class families out of the neighborhoods they built. COPA gives us a practical tool to act before displacement happens by giving mission-driven nonprofits, community land trusts, and responsible partners a fair chance to preserve housing for long-term affordability and community stewardship,” said Sandra Lobo, Executive Director of Our Bronx. “At Our Bronx, we believe the affordability crisis will only be solved by pairing production with preservation. We must protect the homes that already exist, keep people rooted, and build the infrastructure for communities to co-own and co-govern their future. As COPA moves forward again, the City has a real opportunity to act with urgency and pass this legislation.”
“New Yorkers are struggling to stay in their homes, and the city currently has some of the lowest vacancy rates in decades. We need bold preservation tools that center tenants and community needs so they can remain housed,” said Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez. “COPA creates a pathway for permanently affordable, community-controlled housing while helping prevent the continuous cycle of eviction, flipping, and displacement. I’m proud that Council Member Nurse has remained steady on this legislation and I am proud to support COPA once again.”
“For decades, the Fifth Avenue Committee has worked to ensure that low- and moderate-income New Yorkers can remain in the communities they helped build. We are seeing more and more tenants facing the uncertainty that comes when the properties they have called home are under threat due to foreclosure, bankruptcy or other challenges,” said Michelle de la Uz, Executive Director of the Fifth Avenue Committee. “The Community Opportunity to Purchase Act is a vital tool to combat displacement and preserve affordability in our neighborhoods. COPA empowers mission-driven affordable housing developers like ours to compete with speculative buyers and ensure housing remains affordable for community residents for generations to come. We urge the City Council to pass this legislation and give communities a fighting chance to stay rooted.”
“Housing affordability is the number one issue I hear about from my constituents,” said Council Member Shahana Hanif. “Trusted community organizations like the Fifth Avenue Committee are ready to create and preserve deeply affordable homes, yet too often they’re pushed aside while profit-driven developers take over, driving displacement. COPA gives these organizations a fair opportunity to protect affordable housing and put people before profit.”
“New York City must pass COPA as soon as possible. We know from first-hand experience how transformative this legislation could be,” said Brianna Soleyn, a board member of the East New York Community Land Trust. “The ENY CLT put in the work to organize residents and donors to directly purchase our first building, which was neglected by its former owner. Through COPA, the city can support acquisitions like these, 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.”
“COPA is a vital tool that would help Western Queens Community Land Trust address the affordable housing crisis impacting our neighborhoods. We have been approached multiple times by tenants who seek our help buying their building from negligent landlords, only to have it sold out from under us in the open market before we could make an offer,” said Jenny Dubnau, Board Co-Chair at Western Queens CLT. “The passage of COPA will help us to guarantee tenants’ rights, end ongoing negligence, and secure stable, decommodified housing for our communities. And to make COPA even more effective, it should come with a major capital fund for building purchases.”
“We need much stronger regulations to deter predatory real estate investors and prioritize community-based organizations that are invested in our neighborhoods,” said Council Member Lincoln Restler. “The Community Opportunity to Purchase Act is a critical tool to protect vulnerable tenants from eviction and prevent at-risk multi-family buildings from being bought up and flipped by speculators. Instead, qualified non-profits will be able to expand the supply of much-needed permanently affordable housing and keep residents in their homes. I’m proud to support Council Member Nurse’s urgent legislation that is smartly modeled after successful programs in other U.S. cities.”
“COPA gives tenants and mission-driven affordable housing developers the first opportunity to buy certain buildings when they go up for sale, helping preserve affordability and prevent displacement. It is time to stand with tenants fighting to stay in our communities,” said Council Member Harvey Epstein.
“The Dukler Tenant Union just took control of their buildings from their bad landlord after nearly a decade of fighting. Their win shows tenant associations across the City that there is a path to dignity, stability, and control when tenants organize together for their homes,” said Arielle Hersh, Director of Policy and New Projects at UHAB. “If Council passes the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA), tenants could partner with mission-driven purchasers to create a new pipeline of social housing. In a moment where we are seeing record-high rates of multifamily foreclosures and distress from decades of speculation and disinvestment, we need policies like COPA to turn crisis into opportunity—removing properties from the speculative market and stabilizing them as the high-quality, safe, affordable homes New Yorkers deserve.”
“COPA will take blighted, often abandoned properties and turn them into high quality and deeply affordable units for people across our city. It is the kind of bold solution the housing crisis requires and I am proud to stand in support of it,” said Council Member Kayla Santosuosso.
“We urge the City Council to pass the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act and Mayor Mamdani to sign it into law. New York City cannot solve its housing affordability crisis by building alone; we must also preserve the homes we already have,” said Christie Peale, CEO and Executive Director of Center for NYC Neighborhoods. “COPA would give qualified nonprofits a first opportunity to purchase certain at-risk multifamily buildings when a landlord decides to sell. COPA will help protect residents from displacement, preserve long-term affordability and create new paths to resident ownership. COPA is an important tool for keeping New York residents in the neighborhoods they call home.”
“New York City is in the midst of an acute affordability crisis. Our member neighborhood houses report housing insecurity is one of the most pressing challenges facing their communities,” said Anita Kwok, Policy Analyst at United Neighborhood Houses. “Our current policies are simply insufficient to address the current demand for truly affordable housing. The Community Opportunity to Purchase Act puts the organizations with the deepest roots in these communities in a position to preserve affordability, prevent displacement, and build housing that is truly affordable for the neighborhood populations they serve.”
“Unscrupulous landlords, private equity, and venture capitalists have deteriorated the affordable housing market, pushing out New Yorkers and working families. Preserving affordable housing is a crucial part of the solution to the housing crisis that has fueled homelessness and displacement in an increasingly unaffordable city,” said Council Member Carmen De La Rosa. “Trusted non-profit developers have already been at the forefront fighting for tenant rights and rehabilitating neglected housing, providing tenants with homeownership opportunities – COPA gives them additional tools to uplift tenants and provide dignified housing for New Yorkers who desperately need it. Today’s hearing brings us one step closer to a solution.”
“COPA would be a game-changer for neighborhoods in the South Bronx that face severe displacement pressures, such as Mott Haven,” said Matthew Shore, Director of Planning & Development at South Bronx Unite. “Mott Haven ranks amongst the highest in the city for rent burden, evictions, and housing code violations. At the same time, new housing units produced at or above 80% AMI in our community district were double that of units at or below 80% AMI. We know that CLTs and nonprofit developers have a better track record of affordable housing development than for-profit developers, and COPA is a long-overdue legislation that we need to preserve our working-class communities and address our city’s affordability crisis.”
“For decades, the real estate lobby and its corporate benefactors have worsened the housing crisis, denying working New Yorkers much-needed affordable housing,” said Council Member Chi Ossé. “The Community Opportunity to Purchase Act brings our city one step closer to ensuring housing remains permanently affordable and represents tenants’ interests rather than real estate profits. Today’s housing crisis demands a whole-of-government approach, and I’m proud to support this legislation so we can gain another tool to confront it.”
“Two years ago, This Land Is Ours CLT participated in a successful bid to develop 500 affordable homes on the site of a shuttered Catholic church. We are currently working with the tenants of 438-440 West 45th Street and 331 East 14th Street and a Preservation Purchaser to acquire homes previously-owned by slumlord Ohebshalom, and we’re at a critical stage in our negotiations with the current owner. With COPA in place, we are confident we’d be able to strike a deal that ensures the permanent affordability of the housing,” said Valerio Orselli, Project Director of This Land Is Ours CLT. “We are very close to making a deal for these three buildings. And we are very close to passing COPA, after so many attempts in the past. Let’s make 2026 the year we finally pass this critical bill.”
“As locals, we know the future of New York City is not only about infrastructure. It is also about whether the communities that actually built this city, neighborhood by neighborhood, can remain here and have a voice in its future,” said Malik Sanders, Executive Director of ReAL Edgemere Community Land Trust. “As we struggle through multiple housing crises, COPA would give tenants and mission-driven organizations a real opportunity to keep our families rooted here by bringing homes into long-term community stewardship. Simply put, the City Council should pass COPA because we cannot continue losing our homes, families, and neighborhoods to speculation.”
“The Youth Alliance for Housing is a collective of young organizers fighting for the right to remain in the city we love. The endless cycle of speculation in this city is killing New Yorkers and enriching those who profit from our homes – and it doesn’t have to be this way. COPA is a tool to keep New Yorkers housed in permanently affordable homes, and if Speaker Menin and City Council care about the affordability crisis, they will pass COPA,” said Kasey McNaughton, Director of Organizing at The Youth Alliance for Housing.
“For more than seven decades, CLOTH has worked to preserve and develop the housing stock of the Washington Heights neighborhood for low-income families. Giving Community Development Organizations like ours a right of first offer and right of refusal when privately owned buildings are placed on the market for sale would yield enormous benefits for communities across New York City,” said Yvonne Stennett, Executive Director of Community League of the Heights (CLOTH). “First, it will help curb speculation and the ill-desired effect of displacement that often accompanies it—particularly in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods. COPA would also help organizations like ours expand New York City’s affordable housing inventory. It would enhance the viability of HPD’s Neighborhood Pillars Program, which would in turn help stabilize communities by ensuring that properties are rehabilitated and made affordable.”
“We are thrilled that COPA has been reintroduced in the City Council, and we strongly urge the body to again pass it,” said Andrew Berman, Executive Director of Village Preservation. “This bill offers New Yorkers a powerful new tool to stabilize and protect existing affordable housing; its passage would strike a blow on behalf of tenants and all New Yorkers.”
“COPA will provide one more much-needed tool tenants and their advocates can use to protect our homes, our families, and the communities that we’ve built,” said Ramina Davidson, Executive Director of Communities Resist. “Allowing qualified non-profits and Community Land Trusts the right of first refusal when landlords sell certain buildings will help block predatory developers from buying up those buildings and pricing out New Yorkers. We’ve seen the protective effects of similar legislation in other cities, and we look forward to COPA becoming the first of many such laws here.”
“COPA is an important tool for keeping New York City neighborhoods affordable and helping them remain stable, diverse, and vibrant. It helps ensure that New York remains a city where working families and small businesses can succeed and thrive,” said Will Joyce, Program Director at Build Up Justice NYC.