On a freezing December afternoon, tenants and their advocates rallied outside 331 East 14th St, decrying their landlords’ years of efforts to force them out—subjecting them to broken locks and squatters, collapsed ceilings, no heat, no elevator, and no gas.
One four-year tenant, Elliot, described enduring two winters without heat and the collapse of his ceiling three times. A forty-year tenant, Peter Griffin, mourned the experience of having his building “turned into a sh*thole.”
But their focus was not on their former landlord, the notorious slumlord Daniel Ohebshalom, nor on their current landlord, McGuire Capital, a multimillion dollar real estate investment company. Their focus was on the New York City Council.
McGuire Capital had put their building up for sale, and the crowd of impassioned tenants and advocates was calling on the council to pass the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA).
COPA could potentially put an end to these tenants’ miseries by facilitating the sale of their building to a community land trust that would look out for tenant interests. In hopes of purchasing their building, the tenants had already organized a joint venture between a community land trust and an affordable housing development company.
The Status of COPA
Designed as a pro-tenant measure, COPA gives vetted, city-approved affordable housing organizations notice that eligible multi-family buildings are for sale and the first opportunity to place a competitive, market-rate bid. Significantly revamped since first introduced in city council, it focuses specifically on physically distressed properties and properties where the affordable housing protections for tenants will soon expire. Owner-occupied buildings are exempted from the legislation.
Nine days after the Dec. 9 rally, on the city council’s last day in session, the council passed COPA in a 31-10 vote with seven abstentions.
On New Year’s Eve, his last day in office, Mayor Eric Adams vetoed the measure.
To override the mayor’s veto and turn COPA into law, two things would have to happen. The new council speaker would have to schedule an override vote, and the vote to override would need to be at least a two-thirds majority, meaning at least 34 of 51 council members voting to override.
Council Member Julie Menin, expected to become the next council speaker, abstained from voting on COPA. Her husband is a real estate developer and real estate groups have lobbied strenuously against the law. Menin has reportedly said she is open to considering scheduling an override vote.
The new council includes new members replacing departing members. Will Spisak, who has helped lead the New Economy Project’s efforts to get COPA over the finish line, told the Village Star-Revue that “we’re still riding on the momentum that we’ve had for the last couple of months” and that he is “pretty confident” of picking up the needed additional votes.
“Our focus will be on messaging, to show council members how COPA would benefit their district’s constituents” and to counteract the last-minute “atrocious mess of disinformation” by the bill’s opponents, including an op-ed in City & State by Brooklyn Council Member Darlene Mealy, who cast her opposition to COPA as a civil rights battle on behalf of Black small property owners, and proclaimed a Black and Jewish alliance against the measure.
Spisak noted that the main argument of COPA opponents is that the law would prevent or depress building sales. Yet he reported that, to his surprise, since COPA has been in the news, real estate brokers have been reaching out to affordable housing groups, suggesting they have eligible buildings for sale and offering to make a deal.
Should COPA be enacted, Spisak acknowledged that funding for potential purchasers will be key: “We would be pivoting to a budget campaign” to make sure that existing preservation programs are “funded and beefed-up.” This would include programs administered by the city’s department of housing preservation and development as well as the New York City Acquisition Fund, which offers bridge funding to affordable housing developers.
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