Today, Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani signed the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA), landmark legislation that will give qualified nonprofits and community groups the first opportunity to purchase certain multifamily buildings before they hit the private market.
Sponsored by Council Member Sandy Nurse, COPA gives mission-driven affordable housing providers 145 days to make an offer on eligible properties, along with an additional year during which they can exercise a right of first refusal to match another buyer's offer. The legislation creates a powerful new tool to preserve affordable housing, protect tenants and prevent buildings from falling into a cycle of disrepair and profit-driven neglect.
"Too many New Yorkers have watched their homes deteriorate while landlords extract profits and tenants are left to fight for the repairs they deserve. That's not how housing should work. Our homes should be places of stability, not vehicles for speculation. COPA puts power in the hands of the community organizations that have spent years serving our neighborhoods and fighting to keep New Yorkers housed. After six years of organizing, tenants and advocates have won a new tool to protect their homes and keep affordable housing in the hands of those who will care for it," said Mayor Mamdani. "This is what it looks like to build a more affordable city where every New Yorker can live with stability and dignity."
"COPA will be a valuable part of our work to preserve and invest in affordable housing across the five boroughs. This is an important tool to ensure buildings at risk are managed by people with a stake in their long-term success," said Leila Bozorg, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning. "Congratulations to Council Member Nurse and her colleagues, tenants, and organizers who have fought for years to celebrate this day!"
"With COPA signed into law, we are entering a new era for affordable housing in New York City: one where organizations rooted in our communities are able to step in and preserve the affordable housing that New Yorkers rely on. Thanks to six years of advocacy by Council Member Nurse, the Progressive Caucus, NYCCLI, and tenants and organizers across the city, we have a powerful new tool in our work to create a fairer, more affordable city," said Cea Weaver, Director of the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants.
"This new law will gate against speculative investment in both distressed and expiring affordable housing by providing not-for-profit housing providers a first opportunity to purchase. This is a great tool to end the cycle of tenants experiencing worsening conditions as their buildings go from one bad landlord to the next. We look forward to implementing COPA and helping keep more New Yorkers in safe, stable housing," said Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Commissioner Dina Levy.
"The Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA) is an example of what happens when tenants, community organizations, and progressive legislators take on powerful interests and win. After six years, multiple Mayors, and a veto, COPA is finally signed into law," said Council Member Sandy Nurse. "Across the city, people overwhelmingly voted for a more affordable life and COPA is a new tool to help deliver that. COPA will preserve affordable housing and give working families a chance to stay in the city we love. I look forward to working with the Mamdani administration to implement it."
"New York City is facing a housing crisis-not only because we lack affordable homes, but because too many of the homes we already have are deteriorating under cycles of speculation, disinvestment, and neglect," said Council Member Pierina Sanchez, Chair of the Committee on Housing and Buildings. "The Community Opportunity to Purchase Act gives us a powerful new tool to interrupt those cycles at the point of sale, giving mission-driven nonprofits a fair chance to acquire distressed and affordable buildings and put them on a path toward long-term stability. I am proud to have supported COPA's evolution as Housing Chair, shepherding it through multiple hearings. I am grateful to Council Member Sandy Nurse for the persistence and work it took to get COPA across the finish line, to the COPA Coalition, led by New Economy Project and NYCLI with tenant organizers across our city, including Our Bronx, who made this victory possible, and to Mayor Mamdani for his support to ensure COPA becomes law."
Under COPA, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) will maintain a list of "qualified entities," vetted nonprofits, tenant groups, community land trusts and other mission-driven organizations with demonstrated experience acquiring, preserving and managing affordable housing. These organizations must also demonstrate the financial and organizational capacity to purchase and operate eligible properties.
When a covered building is put up for sale, qualified entities will receive an exclusive 145-day window to complete the purchase. If the qualified entity's offer is rejected and another buyer subsequently makes an offer within the following year, qualified entities will have the right of first refusal to match it.
Covered properties include multifamily buildings with four or more units that are in significant disrepair, as well as buildings with affordability restrictions governed by HPD regulatory agreements. By creating a pathway for responsible community-based ownership, COPA will ensure that these properties are repaired, maintained and operated in partnership with tenants rather than left to deteriorate by negligent owners.
Today's signing marks the culmination of six years of advocacy by Council Member Nurse, tenants and community organizations. Former Mayor Eric Adams vetoed an earlier version of COPA in December 2025. The Mamdani administration subsequently made the legislation a priority in its Block by Block housing plan, released in May 2026. The City Council passed the bill in October 2026.
With the legislation now signed, HPD will begin implementation, including establishing the qualified entities list and creating a process to notify eligible organizations when covered buildings are put up for sale.
COPA is a part of the Mamdani administration's broader effort to make New York City more affordable by creating new housing, preserving affordable homes and giving tenants greater power to remain in their communities. The administration's Block by Block housing plan set unprecedented goals of building 200,000 new affordable homes and preserving 200,000 more over the next decade. In its first budget, the administration committed a historic $22 billion in affordable housing capital over five years.
That investment is part of a comprehensive housing agenda that also includes an ambitious land use strategy, stronger support for organized tenants, new tools to crack down on negligent landlords, renewed investment in public housing and streamlined processes to build and lease affordable housing at the speed that New Yorkers need. Together, these efforts reflect a fundamental commitment to building a city where working people can afford to stay, neighborhoods can shape their own futures and housing serves the people who call New York City home.
"Today's enactment of COPA is a transformative victory for housing justice-won through years of organizing by community land trusts, tenants, and community groups across the five boroughs," said Deyanira Del Rio, Executive Director of New Economy Project, which coordinates the NYC Community Land Initiative coalition. "COPA gives communities a powerful new tool to take housing off the speculative market and bring it into permanently affordable community ownership. We thank Council Member Sandy Nurse for zealously championing COPA and Mayor Mamdani for taking bold action to address our city's affordability crisis by signing this landmark bill."
"For decades, Bronx tenants have organized against the cycle of neglect, speculation, and displacement that threatens their homes and communities. Today, we celebrate a major victory in that fight," said Sandra Lobo, Executive Director of Our Bronx. "By signing COPA into law, Mayor Mamdani is helping create new opportunities for nonprofits, community land trusts, and their partners to preserve affordable housing and bring buildings into responsible, community-rooted ownership. At Our Bronx, we are working alongside tenants and the Bronx Community Land Trust to build the infrastructure for permanently affordable housing, resident leadership, and long-term community stewardship. We thank Mayor Mamdani, Council Member Sandy Nurse, and the many tenants and organizations whose years of organizing made this possible. We look forward to working with the City to turn COPA into real opportunities for New Yorkers to remain in the neighborhoods they have helped build."
"We know from firsthand experience how transformative this legislation will be for tenants and community land trusts," said Boris Santos, President of the East New York Community Land Trust. "The ENYCLT put in the work to organize tenants and donors to become the first CLT to directly purchase a building privately from a landlord who had neglected his building for years. COPA will help make acquisitions like ours more possible - keeping tenants across NYC in their homes, improving conditions and giving residents the power to collectively run their buildings."
"UHAB is thrilled that Mayor Mamdani has signed the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA) into law, a key promise of his Block by Block housing plan," said Margy Brown, Executive Director of UHAB. "For more than five decades, UHAB has been a leader in preserving and rehabilitating affordable housing in NYC and expanding resident ownership and control. COPA is a powerful new tool to keep housing affordable and in the hands of New Yorkers. We look forward to partnering with the administration as they implement COPA and ensuring that steps are taken to use it to its fullest potential."
"Cooper Square Committee is so proud of New York City for passing COPA. We want to continue our rich legacy of creating community land trusts," said Illapa Sairitupac, a Housing Organizer at Cooper Square Committee. "Our organization frequently works with tenants whose lives are upended when their building is sold to a neglectful corporate landlord. COPA will give tenants the ability to facilitate needed improvements and preserve the affordability of their buildings in perpetuity. Such policies have already proven successful in places like San Francisco, and we're confident New York will use COPA to great effect, to protect tenants from displacement and stabilize our housing stock."
"A huge congratulations to the community land trust movement and to the City for enacting COPA," said Valerio Orselli, Project Director of This Land Is Ours CLT. "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. Among other projects, 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. COPA will make challenging acquisition processes like these far more efficient."
"I am deeply moved by the enactment of COPA. Having lived in the same apartment in Hell's Kitchen for more than forty years and having witnessed firsthand the devastating effects the action and inaction of a predatory landlord has had on my fellow tenants and neighbors, I strongly support letting communities decide for themselves what's in their best interest," said Nicholas Latimer, Tenants' Association leader at 438/440 W. 45th Street, apartment buildings formerly owned by Daniel Ohebshalom, a NYC 'worst landlord' as declared by the NYC Public Advocate's Office. "It does not take an army of outside developers to shape the future of our shared spaces. It takes a village. And the village is ready, willing, and more than able to do the necessary work."
"COPA's passage is a true win for Queens," said Jenny Dubnau, Co-Chair of the Western Queens CLT. "COPA will help Western Queens CLT transform existing housing in Queens so it's permanently affordable and tenant-controlled."
"We thank the City Council and Mayor Mamdani for enacting this legislation and giving communities a fighting chance to stay rooted," 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. 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. COPA empowers mission-driven nonprofits like ours to compete with speculative buyers and ensure housing remains affordable for community residents for generations to come."
"With today's signing of the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act, New York City is taking a major step toward housing affordability and creating new paths to homeownership," said Christie Peale, CEO and Executive Director of the Center for New York Homeownership. "COPA gives mission-driven nonprofits a fair chance to purchase at-risk buildings and engage tenants to create long-term community ownership. We thank Mayor Mamdani, Speaker Julie Menin, Council Member Sandy Nurse, and all the advocates whose years of work made this milestone possible."
"This is what it looks like when communities organize, persist, and win. 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. "The enactment of COPA is a major victory for tenants and mission-driven organizations fighting to keep our families rooted here and bring homes into long-term community stewardship. Simply put, we cannot continue losing our homes, families, and neighborhoods to speculation. We thank Council Member Sandy Nurse, the City Council, and the broad coalition that fought to make this victory possible."
"We commend the NYC Council for passing COPA, a critical bill that we staunchly support," said Benjamin Warnke, principal of Alembic Community Development. "COPA gives responsible developers and community organizations a new tool to stabilize and preserve truly affordable housing. It will foster partnerships between qualified, mission-driven nonprofits and for-profit developers to efficiently exercise COPA rights. Alembic and CLOTH have participated in joint ventures for years to complete new construction and housing preservation projects in Washington Heights, Hamilton Heights, and Inwood. Our experience points to how these partnerships can fuel COPA's success, and we are ready to ensure COPA's effective implementation from day one."
"We are elated to hear that Mayor Mamdani will finally sign this bill!" said Yvonne Stennett, Executive Director of Community League of the Heights (CLOTH). "For more than seven decades, CLOTH has worked to preserve and develop the housing stock of the Washington Heights neighborhood for low-income families. Enacting COPA into law will bring one more tool to the housing landscape that grants inroads into the affordability crisis and helps to ensure that housing is available to those who need it. Who better to rehabilitate distressed properties than community-based organizations like CLOTH? We know local community stressors, have witnessed the effects of gentrification, and have worked diligently toward housing equity. We commend Mayor Mamdani for signing this law and look forward to a robust affordable housing stock in Upper Manhattan."
"We thank Mayor Mamdani for signing COPA into law," said Will Depoo, Senior Campaign Organizer at the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development. "As we continue to face a housing, homelessness, and affordability crisis, we must prioritize preserving affordable housing for those who need it most. 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."
"COPA will 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 building and preserving affordable housing development than for-profit developers. We're overjoyed that we now have COPA to preserve our working-class communities and address our city's affordability crisis."
"I started organizing with my neighbors because my building was in disrepair with an unresponsive landlord. For tenants like me, COPA represents an opportunity for a better future and a greater voice in what happens to their homes," said Ann Maitin, a member of CASA (Community Action for Safe Apartments) and leader of a tenants association in the Bronx. "There is more work ahead. The SAFER Homes Act is another important effort to address severely neglected buildings and hold irresponsible landlords accountable. A safe and dignified home should be a basic expectation, not a privilege."
"Today is a day for celebration. COPA will let residents like us stay in our homes and keep our neighborhoods from becoming playgrounds for the wealthy," said John Leyva, a tenant leader at 63 Tiffany Place. "The tenants in this city are at a disadvantage, fighting against millionaires, billionaires, and increasingly, private equity. It's a David vs. Goliath fight. With the enactment of COPA, we are finally leveling the playing field."
"Habitat for Humanity New York City and Westchester County is proud to support the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act and celebrate its signing into law. COPA gives qualified nonprofits and community land trusts a meaningful opportunity to acquire at-risk multifamily properties, preserve affordability, protect tenants from displacement, and expand pathways toward permanently affordable, resident-controlled homeownership," said Sabrina Lippman, CEO, Habitat for Humanity New York City and Westchester County. "We thank Council Member Sandy Nurse for the leadership and coalition-building that brought this legislation across the finish line, and Mayor Mamdani and the Administration for recognizing the essential role mission-driven nonprofits play in addressing New York City's housing crisis. We look forward to working with the City to pair COPA with the resources nonprofits need to act quickly and preserve these homes for the long term."
