Tenants, Community Groups, and Electeds Launch Campaign to Pass the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act With Rally in Brooklyn

For Immediate Release

February 8, 2024 

Contact: Elise Goldin, New Economy Project, 847-899-0233, elise@neweconomynyc.org

Tenants, Community Groups, and Electeds Launch Campaign to Pass the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act With Rally in Brooklyn

New Community Service Society Poll Finds Overwhelming Majority of New Yorkers Support TOPA Legislation to Give Tenants First Right to Buy Their Buildings When Landlords Sell

Brooklyn, NY – As soaring housing costs continue to push New Yorkers out of their neighborhoods and the state, members of the Housing Justice for All and New York City Community Land Initiative coalitions rallied with elected officials, tenants and other advocates on Thursday to demand passage of the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) in this year’s state legislative session. 

Sponsored by State Senator Zellnor Myrie and Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes, TOPA (A3353/S221) would require that when a landlord puts a multifamily rental building up for sale, the tenants would be offered the first opportunity to collectively purchase the building, empowering them to take control of their homes and turn their buildings into permanently affordable housing. Advocates are also calling for $250 million a year over the next four years – totaling $1 billion – in this year’s state budget for an acquisition and technical assistance fund that would help tenants and nonprofit housing organizations purchase buildings.

Standing outside a South Slope apartment building, rally-goers shook noisemakers and hoisted signs reading “82% of NYers support TOPA!,” as tenants, community land trust (CLT) organizers, and housing advocates described how the speculative market fuels both neglect of the housing stock and ever-increasing real estate costs – driving displacement in Black and brown communities.

The rally comes on the heels of a new Community Service Society poll showing NYC residents overwhelmingly support TOPA. The poll found that 82 percent of all respondents favored TOPA, with Black and Latinx New Yorkers expressing especially strong support for the proposal (86 and 84 percent respectively). Affordable housing, according to the poll, was “the number one thing New Yorkers said they needed to get ahead economically,” across all demographic groups and boroughs. 

Skyrocketing rents driven by real estate speculation hurt not only low-wage workers and seniors, but also public service and union workers, advocates emphasized. At the rally, tenants of 287 Prospect Ave, a mixed-income building with an expiring 421-a tax exemption, said their landlord had lied about rent regulations, warehoused apartments, and put the building on and off the market for years. Concerned about the future of their building, tenants argued that with TOPA enacted into law, they will have access to a critical program to help ensure their ongoing housing security.

The tenants of 287 Prospect Avenue are part of a surging movement of tenants who aim to take control of their buildings from absentee or predatory landlords, often with the assistance of neighborhood-based CLTs. For the last few years, tenants from dozens of buildings from Highbridge to Crown Heights have been holding “Tenant Takeover” meetings to learn from successful tenant purchases – including by tenants at 700 East 134th in the South Bronx – and support each other’s ongoing fights for tenant control.  

Under TOPA, once a landlord announces an intent to sell their building, tenants would have a period of time to express interest in exercising their “right to purchase,” and time to obtain financing. Tenants could decide to work with nonprofit housing providers, such as CLTs, to convert their buildings to permanently affordable rental or cooperative housing. 

In recent years, New York City has seen a surge of CLTs – nonprofit, community-controlled organizations dedicated to stewarding land and ensuring housing remains permanently and deeply affordable. There are more than 20 CLTs active or organizing across the five boroughs, including several working with tenants to purchase their buildings from private landlords.

Washington D.C. and San Francisco’s TOPA programs have proven to be essential in those cities’ fights to preserve affordable housing. The policy can also help tenants organize and form tenant associations through which they can demand repairs, gain leverage in landlord negotiations, and interrupt property flipping – even in cases where they don’t end up purchasing their buildings.

QUOTES:

“The Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act offers a critical pathway to affordable homeownership in New York,” said NYS Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes, who helped to emcee the rally. “At a time when hard working New Yorkers are struggling to pay for housing, I believe that it is our responsibility as legislators to respond with action. Now is the time to pass TOPA.”

“TOPA will help New Yorkers build generational wealth and create stable, permanently affordable housing where it’s needed most,” said NYS Senator Zellnor Myrie. “I look forward to carrying on the fight for TOPA this session alongside Assemblymember Mitaynes and community advocates from across New York.”

“As New York confronts the challenges of escalating rents and housing instability, more families risk displacement and homelessness,” said NYC Comptroller Brad Lander. “The future of New York depends on how the City addresses this crisis head-on. Embracing TOPA and building a robust social housing sector is essential for the future of our neighbors, ensuring affordability, security, and social equity for all.”

“The persistent affordability crisis is fueling instability and impacting the collective identity of our city. It is critical that we work in coalition to push forward a social housing agenda, reduce real estate speculation, and put housing in the hands of New Yorkers,” said NYC Council Member Carlina Rivera (D-02). “I’m proud to support the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act and other policies that will expand access to safe affordable housing.” 

“TOPA will give tenants and community land trusts a powerful tool to take land and housing off the speculative market,” said Elise Goldin, CLT Campaign Organizer at New Economy Project, which coordinates the NYC Community Land Initiative. “Coupled with state funding, the bill will expand the supply of deeply-affordable, community-controlled housing New Yorkers desperately need.”

“Tenants need a way to break out of the cycle of flipping and speculation that is contributing to both rising rents and rising evictions,” said Samuel Stein, Senior Policy Analyst at the Community Service Society of New York. “When asked about TOPA in our 2023 Unheard Third survey, New Yorkers resoundingly approved. As we wrote in our recent report, Control Our Homes, Control Our Destinies, 82 percent of respondents support the proposal, including majorities across party, racial, gender and geographic lines. Now is the time for the state to pass and fund TOPA.”

“Every New Yorker deserves a home where they can rest, raise their families, and build community with their neighbors. But predatory speculators are raising rents and destabilizing our neighborhoods,” said Cea Weaver, Campaign Coordinator for Housing Justice for All. “The Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act would protect tenants from the churn of our profit-driven housing market, creating stable, resident-controlled social housing across our state.”

“We urgently need TOPA to intervene in the cycle of speculation that drives longtime residents out of their homes and makes New York less affordable for everyone,” said Arielle Hersh, Director of Policy and New Projects at UHAB. “TOPA would create a pathway to affordable homeownership for New Yorkers most at risk of displacement, and stabilize surrounding communities in the process.”

“We and our neighbors have struggled through deceptive tactics from our landlord where we don’t know what the future of our building looks like after a 421-a tax exemption expires this year. We’re stronger after organizing around this issue, but we’re still at risk! TOPA would help us ensure our housing security in the long term and allow us to stay in our community,” said Gaelen Green, a leader of the 287 Prospect Avenue Tenants Association.  

“Tenants need as many tools as possible to remain in stable, safe homes that they can afford, in neighborhoods they choose,” said Michelle de la Uz, Executive Director of Fifth Avenue Committee & Neighbors Helping Neighbors. “TOPA is an important tool to accomplish that and also counters speculation in the real estate market.  We are deeply grateful for Assemblywoman Mitaynes and State Senator Myrie for their leadership on TOPA and committed to continuing to work with the tenants at 287 Prospect Avenue to reach their goals.”  

“East New York Community Land Trust is in the process of purchasing our first property, a multifamily rental building in East New York, Brooklyn, after years of tenant struggle against their landlord,” said Hannah Anousheh, Campaigns Director at East New York Community Land Trust. “The working class Black and Latinx households in the building will gain housing stability, control over the management of their building and the opportunity to become co-op shareholders. We urgently need TOPA legislation and dedicated funding in order to expand this model of community-controlled housing.”

“Passing TOPA legislation would provide Brooklyn Level Up (BKLVLUP) with additional, much needed, tools in our toolbox for creating affordable home ownership opportunities for New Yorkers who have spent decades maintaining their homes in rent regulated buildings despite landlord neglect,” said Rachel Goodfriend, co-founder of BKLVLUP. “TOPA would create a more realistic path towards homeownership for many BIPOC New Yorkers who have invested their time and effort making NYC neighborhoods what they are today.”

“Through our work organizing tenants and incorporating the Bronx CLT, we meet with Bronx residents every day who are eager to be active stewards of their homes and neighborhoods,” said Todd Baker, Community Development Project Manager at Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition (NWBCCC). “TOPA would offer these tenants the rights and resources they need to take ownership and care for their homes long into the future, and would build wealth and stability in our communities.”

“With TOPA, our many years of struggle to control our own homes would finally bear fruit. With TOPA, our community can really exist. For me, there is no future without first building a present where we can exist securely,” said Ana Reyes, a member of Brooklyn Tenants United. (En español: “TOPA significa el fruto de muchos años de lucha por tener un hogar propio. Significa que nuestra comunidad tendría un presente, para mí no hay futuro sin primero construir un presente y TOPA es nuestro presente.”)

“The tenants in our building welcome TOPA and see it as that ‘Safe Haven’ that will protect and enhance our sense of community,” said Gary Simon of the 120 E 19th St tenant association, which is working with the CLT Brooklyn Level Up.