City Council Speaker Julie Menin has until Thursday, January 29 to allow a vote for the City Council to override Mayor Adams’ 11th-hour veto of the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA), a bill based on effective legislation in several other cities that will help protect existing affordable housing and preserve neighborhoods’ older housing stock from predatory landlords and investors. 

In one of his last acts, Eric Adams did the bidding of the real estate lobby and vetoed COPA, a bill passed by an overwhelming majority of City Councilmembers and that our new Mayor said he supported. COPA would give New Yorkers a powerful new tool to stabilize and protect existing affordable housing.

Village Preservation is part of a citywide coalition supporting COPA. The bill would give community land trusts and other qualified nonprofits the opportunity to bid on and purchase multifamily buildings when a landlord decides to sell. Similar legislation enacted in other cities is credited with preserving tens of thousands of affordable homes and scores of older buildings.

TO HELP: