Mamdani signs COPA, giving nonprofits first chance to buy eligible NYC buildings

NEW YORK - Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed legislation Tuesday giving nonprofits and community land trusts first dibs on buying distressed and subsidized apartment buildings.

Formally known as the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act, or COPA, the law applies to residential buildings with four or more units that either exhibit documented, severe physical disrepair or operate under existing affordability agreements with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), according to a press release from the city. 

City officials say the policy is intended to preserve existing affordable housing and give community-based organizations a pathway to acquire at-risk properties. 

How NYC’s COPA law works

What we know:

Under the law, HPD will vet and certify a registry of "qualified entities"—nonprofits and community land trusts that meet specific financial and property management standards. Once a covered property is listed for sale, those groups get an exclusive 145-day window to negotiate and finalize a deal, along with a one-year right of first refusal to match any outside offer that comes in afterward.

Previously, New York City did not require owners to notify community organizations before listing a residential building or give them a chance to make an offer. COPA adds those requirements, tasking HPD with certifying a list of qualified buyers and building an electronic portal where owners must alert those groups before putting a covered property up for sale. 

HPD will now develop certification rules for eligible buyers and set up an electronic portal for owners to alert qualified groups when covered properties are put up for sale.

What they're saying:

"Too many New Yorkers have watched their homes deteriorate while landlords extract profits and tenants are left to fight for the repairs they deserve," Mamdani said in a statement. "That’s not how housing should work. Our homes should be places of stability, not vehicles for speculation." 

READ MORE: Trump and Mamdani met in Oval Office, discussed housing project

"COPA puts power in the hands of the community organizations that have spent years serving our neighborhoods and fighting to keep New Yorkers housed," he added. 

A 6-year battle

The backstory:

The bill’s signing had been six years in the making.

Tenant rights coalitions and community land trusts—such as the East New York CLT, Western Queens CLT and the New Economy Project—spent years advocating for its passage across three mayoral administrations. 

The bill was first introduced in 2020 under former Mayor Bill de Blasio. It faced backlash from landlord groups and the real estate industry, who argued that mandatory purchase windows would tie up property sales and depress values.

In the years that followed, the legislation stalled in committee, according to City Council Legislative Records, as the city shifted its focus to pandemic-era tenant protections and emergency rental relief. 

READ MORE: Mamdani, Trump discuss affordable housing in NYC during Gracie Mansion meeting

The bill then gained traction again last December, when the City Council passed an earlier draft of the bill, but outgoing Mayor Eric Adams vetoed the measure on his final day in office.

Mamdani's housing record

Dig deeper:

Signing COPA is the latest in a series of housing policy changes under Mamdani, who has focused part of his administration’s agenda on social housing and tenant stabilization policies. 

Mamdani campaigned on building 200,000 affordable homes over a decade, and after taking office, he expanded his housing agenda to include preserving another 200,000 existing affordable homes.

The mayor also appointed Cea Weaver, a nationally recognized tenant advocate, as director of the newly revitalized Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, an agency tasked with coordinating the city’s response to unsafe housing conditions, landlord violations and tenant harassment, earlier this year.

Just a few months later, however, the Mamdani administration drew criticism from its progressive allies and tenant organizers for continuing a lawsuit to block expansion of the city’s housing voucher program, despite previously promising to drop the legal challenge on the campaign trail. The administration argued that the expansion could cost $10 billion over five years amid a worsening fiscal outlook. The issue was resolved in June when the mayor and the City Council reached a budget deal: City Hall agreed to settle the lawsuit, and both sides approved a capped, $300 million companion voucher program.

Mamdani has also engaged with an unexpected figure to advance his housing goals: President Donald Trump. The two met at the White House in February and again at Gracie Mansion in September to discuss, among other topics, $21 billion in federal grants and regulatory approvals needed to build roughly 12,000 affordable homes over the Sunnyside Yard rail hub in Queens.

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