Sanchez cites San Francisco model and nonprofit financing barriers
Sanchez says COPA is inspired by a San Francisco program that helped prevent displacement of thousands of tenants. She argues nonprofits need time to assemble financing and can better maintain lower rents, especially as affordability agreements expire and vacancy rates for low-rent apartments are extremely low.
This program is inspired by a similar program in San Francisco that has helped prevent the displacement of thousands of tenants.
It would help mission-oriented nonprofits compete with speculative investors to acquire housing and enable them to maintain the city's affordable housing stock.
Tens of thousands of regulatory agreements requiring developers to maintain affordable rents in New York expire every year.
The vacancy rate for apartments with rents below $1,100 is estimated at just 0.39%.
It is below 1% for apartments with rents under $1,649.
The city doesn't have enough affordable housing to spare, and we must do what we can to keep those affordability agreements alive.
Nonprofits have been shown to be more effective at maintaining lower rents, but they can't give legitimate offers to purchase property at the same rate as speculative investors.
They rely too heavily on a bundle of...
financing from across many sources.
COPA would give these nonprofits the time they need to purchase residential buildings, preventing the displacement of tenants that call those buildings their home, and enabling these nonprofits to maintain New York's affordable housing stock.