A housing bill that Eric Adams vetoed on his final day in office is back, and this time the math is against the landlords. Within a week of being reintroduced, the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act locked up a majority of the City Council, and with Mayor Zohran Mamdani behind it, the real fight is no longer whether it passes but how much it slows down a building sale.
COPA, reintroduced by Bushwick Council Member Sandy Nurse alongside tenants and community groups, gives qualified nonprofits a first crack at buying distressed apartment buildings before they hit the open market. The Council passed an earlier version in December, but Adams vetoed it on his way out, citing operational concerns. The revived bill reached 26 co-sponsors within a week, a majority of the 51-member Council, enough to pass.
The difference this time is City Hall. Mamdani backed COPA on the campaign trail and again in office, which turns that 26-vote majority into a functional veto-proof path. Greenpoint Council Member Lincoln Restler, a co-sponsor, frames the bill as routing distressed buildings to trusted community owners instead of speculators.
Nurse casts it as a check on professional house-flippers who do cosmetic renovations and drive up costs. Boris Santos, a schoolteacher who grew up in Williamsburg and now runs the East New York Community Land Trust, backs it as an anti-displacement tool, a way to keep buildings in the neighborhood rather than in a flipper’s portfolio.
The real estate industry opposes it, but concedes the changes are marginal: the streamlined version gives nonprofits 20 days to file a statement of interest, and landlord attorneys argue even that shorter clock still hurts sales. Which is the tell. The fight has quietly moved from whether COPA passes to how much friction it adds to a deal, and the industry is now arguing over days on a calendar rather than the principle.
It still needs a final Council vote and the mayor’s signature, but the votes are there. The bill text and its growing co-sponsor list are public on the City Council’s legislation site, and the housing committee hearing is where the timeline gets locked in. If you rent in a building that has just been sold or is sliding toward foreclosure, the community land trusts COPA would empower, like the one Santos runs in East New York, are the people to call before the next buyer does.
Featured image: New Economy Project
