In a growing number of cities across the United States, housing advocates are getting laws passed that give tenants the ability to purchase, either directly or through a nonprofit, their own apartments. Increasingly, these policies—most often known as tenant opportunity to purchase act (TOPA) or community opportunity to purchase act (COPA), the former facilitates direct tenant ownership (often through limited equity housing cooperatives), the latter facilitates nonprofit ownership—are emerging as powerful anti-displacement strategies. But these policies are hard won, and not always easy to implement. Even in cities where tenants have established this ability in law, they often must stave off efforts to dial back these legislative gains.

This webinar, co-moderated by Steve Dubb, senior editor of economic justice at NPQ and Miriam Axel-Lute, editor in chief at Shelterforce, offers a panel of folks who have been reporting on, fighting for, and using these policies. In the conversation, participants offer their perspectives on how these tools work in practice, how to overcome opposition, and how to use tools like TOPA and COPA to expand tenant power.

Participating in the webinar conversation are the following people:

Roshan Abraham is a journalist who has written widely on housing issues both for Next City and Shelterforce. He is based in the Queens borough of New York City.

José García is associate director of preservation at the Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) in San Francisco.

Tram Hoang is a senior associate at PolicyLink, where she focuses on housing policy work. She also led a successful rent stabilization campaign in St. Paul, MN in 2021.

Elin Zurbrigg is a co-executive director of Mi Casa, an affordable housing development nonprofit focused on facilitating tenant opportunity to purchase, based in Washington, DC.

This webinar explores:

  • How can local policy help tenants buy apartment buildings from landlords and collectively own property themselves?
  • How do tenant opportunity to purchase act (TOPA) and community opportunity to purchase act (COPA) policies work in practice?
  • How do tenants go from having a “right” to purchase to the ability to purchase? What are the financing challenges?
  • In what cities do tenants enjoy the right of first refusal to buy property when a property they are renting comes up for sale?
  • What are the sources of resistance to tenant right-to-purchase policies? Where is this resistance seen and how are housing advocates and tenants responding?
  • How can tenant right-to-purchase policies promote ongoing housing affordability?
  • How does tenants having a first right of refusal to buy increase tenant power?

Resources

Roshan Abraham, “D.C. Had the Country’s First TOPA Law. Could Real Estate Developers Gut It?” Shelterforce, May 2, 2024.

Roshan Abraham, “How ‘Tenant Stewards’ Are Using TOPA to Form a Co-op,” Shelterforce, January 26, 2024.

Roshan Abraham, “The Unfulfilled Potential of D.C.’s TOPA Law,” Shelterforce, December 14, 2023.

James A. Crowder, Chris Schildt, and Rick Jacobus, Our Homes, Our Communities: How Housing Acquisition Strategies Can Create Affordable Housing, Stabilize Neighborhoods, and Prevent Displacement, Oakland, CA: PolicyLink, 2021.

Tram Hoang, “A Community Ownership Path to Housing Justice,” NPQ, March 6, 2024.

Judy Meima, “Lessons from 20 Years of Enabling Tenants to Buy Their Buildings,” Shelterforce, November 23, 2020.

PolicyLink, Tenant and Community Opportunity to Purchase Policies are Gaining Traction, Oakland, CA: PolicyLink, 2024.

Padmini Raghunath, “How It’s Working: Laws That Help Tenants and Nonprofits Buy Buildings,” Shelterforce, September 7, 2023.

Carl Slepin and Amy Lieber, “How to Preserve Existing Affordable Housing: The Value of Human Scale,” NPQ, April 3, 2024.

Christina Tetreault, “Holding Our Ground: Tenant Organizing in San Francisco’s Mission District,” NPQ, August 9, 2023.

Ryan Trout, Martha Davis, Farah Fosse, Kathryn Howell, Peter Tatian, Elizabeth Burton, Hank Brothers and Joseph Peterson, Sustaining Affordability: The Role of the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) in Washington, DC, Washington, DC: Center for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development, November 15, 2023.

Elin Zurbrigg, “How DC Can Leverage the Tenant Right to Purchase to Achieve Housing Justice,” NPQ, October 26, 2022.

 

Webinar sponsored by:

Just Write Grants