NEWYORK: 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.
The 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.
