Sharable -The San Francisco Bay Area has been experiencing a housing affordability crisis for quite some time now. Homelessness has reached unprecedented levels, evictions have skyrocketed, and many people are finding it difficult to live in the cities they work in. It’s the magnitude of this crisis which compelled San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors to unanimously pass a piece of legislation this month that could give a big boost to affordable housing in the Bay Area.
The Community Opportunity to Purchase Act, or “COPA,” is the result of years of organizing by housing rights organizations. The act makes it easier for housing nonprofits (including land trusts) to compete in a market that is currently dominated by giant developers and speculators.
COPA does this through two policies: the right of first offer and the right of first refusal. The former requires landlords who are selling privately owned properties with three or more units (or any properties that are zoned as such) to first offer their property to local housing nonprofits before they go to the open market. The right of first refusal gives housing nonprofits the right to match the sale price of any of these properties that do make it to market — meaning as long as they are paying market rate, nonprofits will be given priority.
.... A more recent move, in Washington D.C, is the District Opportunity to Purchase Act, which gives the District itself a chance to purchase units if the tenants cannot.
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