From the New Economy Project Team!
Last week, we were thrilled to stand with our partners in the NYC Community Land Initiative to celebrate passage of the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA)—a transformative victory for housing justice in New York City!
COPA delivers a powerful new tool that tenants and community groups can use to keep housing affordable and under community control. When eligible buildings are put up for sale, community land trusts (CLTs) and other qualified nonprofits working with tenants will have a first chance to purchase those buildings—instead of private equity and other deep-pocked investors swooping in and displacing New Yorkers.
Here’s what COPA does:
- Covers ~3,400 buildings, home to hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, in year one—including properties with persistent housing code violations and those with affordability protections that COPA will safeguard into the future
- Gives CLTs and other qualified nonprofits a first right—and window of time—to purchase eligible buildings, preserving them as permanently affordable rentals or converting them to shared equity co-ops
- Creates a real pathway for tenants and communities to reclaim housing from the speculative market—helping keep working-class New Yorkers in NYC
This victory shows what sustained, collective organizing can achieve. Huge salute to COPA’s lead sponsor, Council Member Sandy Nurse, and the hundreds of community, tenant, and affordable housing groups that took on big real estate and brought COPA over the finish line.
Donate today to support this critical work!
Finally, thanks to all of you who made calls to Council Members, turned out for rallies and actions, testified at hearings, and so much more. It took all of us to bring this victory home.
—The New Economy Project Team
P.S. Check out photos from Thursday’s celebratory rally here!
