Juan Rivera (Bilish Preservation, remote) on COPA as proven preservation tool

Thank you.

Next is Juan Rivero.

You may begin.

Good afternoon, Acting Chair Wilson and Chair Sanchez.

My name is Juan Rivera, testifying on behalf of Billish Preservation in strong support of COPA.

To begin with the obvious, New York is facing an affordability crisis and we cannot build our way out of it.

There is little evidence to suggest that building even hundreds of thousands of market rate units would put housing within reach of the low-income households most in need of it.

We could build income-targeted affordable housing, and we should, but it is more efficient and easier to preserve existing affordable housing than to build new housing.

In a world of limited resources, we need every tool available to tackle a problem of this magnitude.

For decades, speculative investors have made this problem worse, buying buildings at inflated prices, raising rents, and letting repairs go undone, especially where affordability protections are expiring, and tenants end up paying more for less.

That's where COPA comes in, by helping restore some degree of balance to a market distorted by speculation.

It gives certified nonprofits a real chance to compete for at-risk buildings when an owner sells, allowing them to preserve much-needed permanently affordable housing.

This is not an untested idea.

It builds on San Francisco's successful 2019 law.

It is also not a half-baked one.

It reflects over five years of council deliberation and is backed by over 200 affordable housing developers.

land trusts, tenant groups, and lenders.

Every day we wait, more affordable housing is lost to speculation.

I urge you to pass COPA and give New Yorkers a better chance to stay in their homes.

Thank you.