Statement on Mayor Adams’ Veto of the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 31, 2025

CONTACT: Deyanira Del Río, New Economy Project, dey@neweconomyproject.org

Today, New Economy Project and the NYC Community Land Initiative coalition issued the following statement in response to Mayor Eric Adams’ veto of the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA):

“In one of his final acts as Mayor, Eric Adams chose to side with the real estate lobby over tenants and working-class communities, vetoing the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA), a bill his own housing agency helped shape. This brazenly reckless action will exacerbate New York City’s deepening housing and affordability crisis.

“The City Council passed COPA after more than five years of public discussion and technical development with affordable housing developers, tenant organizations, policy experts, and the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development. The bill reflects careful deliberation, broad stakeholder input, and a clear legislative mandate.

“COPA is a common-sense, proven policy that levels the playing field for preservation buyers—including community land trusts, nonprofit developers, and joint ventures—in a housing market under extreme speculative pressure. San Francisco’s COPA law, enacted in 2019, has already preserved hundreds of affordable homes and kept more than 1,000 residents securely housed—without slowing building sales, disrupting the market, or facing legal challenge.

“By giving vetted, mission-driven affordable housing developers a first opportunity to purchase certain distressed and at-risk buildings up for sale, COPA prevents tenant displacement and preserves affordable housing in rapidly gentrifying low-income, Black, Brown, and immigrant communities. The law is narrowly tailored and fully excludes all 1-3 family homes, owner-occupied buildings with 5 units or fewer, family transfers, and vacant lots, among other exemptions.

“New York City cannot allow the actions of a lame-duck mayor—acting to appease powerful real estate interests—to override the will of the City Council and the communities it represents. This veto is not only an attack on urgently needed housing policy; it directly undermines the Council’s role as a democratic institution.

“We urge the Council to defend its institutional integrity by overriding this veto and enacting COPA without delay to address the City’s urgent housing affordability crisis.”