Tenant and Community Opportunity to Purchase (TOPA/COPA) policies are transformative tools that promote housing stability, preserve affordability, and empower residents and community-based organizations to shape the future of their neighborhoods. These policies require property owners to provide tenants with advance notice of intent to sell, along with the first right of purchase, either to tenants (under TOPA) or qualified nonprofit organizations (under COPA). Rather than facing involuntary displacement, tenants and communities are given a meaningful opportunity to preserve their homes and neighborhoods. By creating pathways to resident or nonprofit ownership, TOPA/COPA not only help prevent evictions and speculative displacement but also serve as critical mechanisms for building long-term community wealth.

TOPA is an important anti-displacement tool that can be used to preserve affordable rental housing stock, keep housing in community hands, and stabilize Black and Brown communities that have long faced disinvestment and exclusion. These policies generally require landlords to provide an “intent to sell” notice to their tenants, along with a timeframe for the tenants to form a tenant association and express interest in purchasing the units, and a  timeframe for tenants to secure financing. By providing tenants with the right to negotiate and collectively bargain to purchase their buildings, TOPA policies level the playing field in highly speculative markets. 

As an anti-displacement tool, TOPA policies and programs can stabilize households facing displacement pressures and provide an opportunity for long-time residents to stay in their neighborhood and purchase their homes. In addition, TOPA is a way for communities to regain control of their homes and futures while simultaneously combatting the financialization of housing. In Washington, DC — home to the nation's oldest and most comprehensive TOPA program — TOPA has been used to develop or preserve over 16,000 affordable units, giving tens of thousands of tenants a seat at the table in negotiations over the sale of their building. In an ever-increasingly expensive real estate market, TOPA can also be a cost-effective method for cities to preserve their affordable housing stock since preserving existing housing costs less than building new affordable homes.

Cities and states can also consider developing Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA) policies as an alternative or to complement a TOPA policy. COPA allows a qualified nonprofit to make a first offer to purchase a building with low-income residents if the property owner decides to sell. COPA should be carefully crafted with tenants and nonprofit partners such as community land trusts, community developers, and other affordable housing providers. While only a few cities and states have developed policies that allow for the purchase of unsubsidized housing, a number of cities and states have provisions that allow for the purchase of subsidized affordable housing in order to preserve affordability. 

Another closely related tool is Right of First Refusal (ROFR), which is a policy that gives specific parties the first opportunity to make an offer to buy a property. The right itself can be assigned to current tenants, preservation buyers, or local governments to give them the first bite at the apple when a building is up for sale. The seller then must prioritize that party’s offer. If the party does not want to purchase the property, they can waive their right so that the owner can sell to other potential buyers. 

One opportunity to advance ROFR is through advocating for its inclusion in Qualified Allocation Plans (QAPs), which is the process tax credit agencies use to award Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). Residents and advocates can push housing finance agencies to amend QAP language to add threshold requirements or preference priorities for projects that give residents, nonprofit organizations or government agencies the right to purchase a LIHTC building. See this LIHTC QAP guide for more.

As the climate crisis worsens and continues to impact housing security across the country, community ownership policies like TOPA, COPA and ROFR can also help residents respond to destabilizing climate events. In California, advocates pushed for a COPA policy in wildfire-impacted areas after the Southern California wildfires in January 2025. This set of policies can further strengthen community ownership of assets during times of post-disaster capitalism, when private actors seek to leverage uncertainty, limited resources, and desperation to swoop in and purchase land and property.

Keys to successful TOPA/COPA programs include: 

1. Clear Timelines for Notice and Acquisition: In order for tenants and other preservation buyers to effectively participate in building acquisitions, TOPA/COPA programs must establish a clear and realistic timeline . This timeline should begin with a mandatory advance notice period (ideally, 30 to 90 days), during which landlords are required to inform tenants of their intent to sell before listing the property on the market. Following this, a designated period during which tenants or preservation buyers can formally express or register their interest in purchasing the property must be established. Once interest is registered, a negotiation period should enable  interested buyers and current owners to perform due diligence, finalize a price and other sale terms. Buyers must then be given sufficient time to secure financing. Finally, all parties must be given a maximum number of days for closing. This comprehensive and transparent timeline ensures all stakeholders have the opportunity to engage meaningfully in the acquisition process.
    
2. Technical Assistance Across the Spectrum: Essential technical assistance starts with public education, awareness and outreach so that residents understand their rights, resources and opportunities to negotiate future tenure or purchase their home. In addition, dedicated funding for tenant organizing is key because organizers help mobilize neighbors to decide if they want to pursue ownership together, and support them in navigating the acquisition process. Legal expertise is also required to guide tenants through the complicated landscape of real estate transactions and exercising their rights related to the building. In some cases, homeownership training is made available to prospective buyers. In other scenarios, non-profit organizations like land banks are necessary partners to initially acquire properties and steward them until development financing is secured.
    
3. Financing From Beginning to End: As with any development project, successful tenant ownership requires access to comprehensive and timely financing tools. One of the most important aspects of financing is how quickly it can be mobilized. Real estate transactions move quickly, and fast capital is the best capital because it allows tenants to respond to the rapidly evolving market. The types of financing that buyers need include: pre-development financing, acquisition loans, rehabilitation or construction loans, and permanent financing. Often, the buildings that tenants or preservation buyers want to purchase are in poor condition due to landlord neglect, deferred maintenance, or a lack of capital improvements. These conditions must be addressed by making rehabilitation or construction financing readily available. Lastly, loans should be offered with little to no-interest so that residents can keep units long-term affordable.
    
4. Long-Term Support for Building Management and Sustainability: After a building transitions  to tenant or community ownership, long-term success requires sustained support for the complexities of shared ownership and leadership. If a board of member owners is created to manage the property, they may need technical support from cooperative housing organizations to help the leadership body develop the capacity and skills needed to successfully and collaboratively lead. Property management responsibilities, from calculating members’ shared equity to financing capital improvements, often demand ongoing stewardship to ensure the building remains both physically and financially sustainable.

In addition to PolicyLink tools and resources, see the Partnership for the Bay’s Future, TechEquity, Alliance for Housing Justice, and Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) for more resources related to tenant/community opportunity to purchase policies. Read our piece in Nonprofit Quarterly about how community ownership strategies advance housing justice.

• Tenants are at the frontlines, organizing for expanded tenant rights, leading TOPA campaigns, and developing TOPA policies. In places where TOPA policies do not yet exist, tenants can still fight to acquire their buildings – ultimately making the case for why codified rights and procedures are necessary. Tenants in Minneapolis, MN, for example, launched a campaign for a TOPA policy in 2019 following a nearly decade-long fight to buy their building from their landlord. In the Bronx, tenants also successfully fought to purchase their building from their landlord. Like in Minneapolis, the path from neighbors sharing similar concerns about their building to purchasing the building took years—a process that advocates are trying to clarify, accelerate, and codify through the passage of a statewide TOPA policy and a citywide COPA policy. 
   
• Elected and appointed city and state officials can champion, pass legislation, and allocate robust funding for the creation of TOPA/COPA programs. Policies like advance notice of sale can be a good onramp if TOPA/COPA are not immediately politically feasible.
   
• Cross-sector community advocacy groups can be a meaningful partner in policy campaigns and help make the case for TOPA/COPA. Whether they are focused on housing affordability, cultural preservation, or community wealth-building, these organizations play an important role in uplifting the need to fight the commodification of homes and neighborhoods. For example, there is currently a broad coalition in support of TOPA in New York.
   
• Technical assistance capacity-builders like UHAB and Mi Casa, Inc. support tenants in becoming cooperative homeowners, from providing co-op shareholder trainings to helping a co-op board create a budget for building maintenance. These organizations are vital to ensuring the long-term stability of tenant-led governance structures.
   
• Legal organizations can serve as TOPA/COPA stewards by providing outreach, education, and organizing support to tenants. For example, a legal aid organization that operates a tenant hotline can notify tenants who fear displacement by a new owner about their TOPA/COPA rights. Movement lawyering organizations can help tenants exercise their TOPA/COPA rights. For example, Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid lawyers helped Minneapolis tenants fight to acquire their building from their absentee landlord.
   
• Community developers can serve as potential purchasers of buildings or provide development technical assistance on the real estate transaction process. Mission Economic Development Agency plays an important role in San Francisco’s housing ecosystem as a non-profit developer that leverages COPA for preservation.
   
• Community development corporations (CDC) and community development financial institutions (CDFI) can partner with tenant groups to find pre-development, acquisition, and rehabilitation financing.

The most effective TOPA/COPA policies are developed in close partnership with tenants and housing advocates. These policies must include dedicated funding, infrastructure to proactively inform tenants about their TOPA/COPA rights, support tenant organizing, and help tenants finance the purchase of buildings. As a result, cities and states seeking to implement TOPA/COPA policies must consider a range of related legal and logistical questions.

• Tenant agency and collective ownership: TOPA policies offer tenants a pathway to greater agency and self-determination by enabling meaningful participation in the sale of their homes. TOPA harnesses tenants' collective power as they form tenant associations to make decisions about purchasing, which organizations to partner with, and how to secure funding and legal counsel. Upon a tenant purchase, residents have democratic control of their building and can address repairs, maintenance, and renovations as they best see fit. Even when  tenant ownership is not the outcome, these policies ensure that tenants have a seat at the table for tenants to participate in negotiations over the sale of their building. This participation can lead to negotiated outcomes such as rent stabilization, preservation of affordability through LIHTC, or extended Section 8 contracts to maintain federal subsidies in buildings - protecting affordability for current and future residents.  
   
• Preserving affordability: TOPA/COPA programs are typically reserved for tenants earning at or below 80 percent of the area median income (AMI), helping to preserve affordable housing options for low-income residents. This is particularly important for communities facing displacement pressures and at risk of being priced out of their homes and neighborhoods. Cities and states should ensure purchasers through TOPA/COPA can commit to long-term affordability through deed restrictions, partnerships with community land trusts,or other mechanisms that safeguard affordability over time.
   
• Unit and tenant eligibility: Policymakers must determine the scope of buildings and tenants eligible under TOPA/COPA. This includes deciding whether the policy applies to subsidized housing, unsubsidized rental stock, or both. Strong TOPA policies such as that in DC cover both types of properties and help better preserve availability of rental units and mitigate displacement. Policymakers must also determine eligibility of potential purchasers, such as tenants at or below 80 percent AMI. Policymakers should offer all tenants the opportunity to purchase by making all rental units eligible for TOPA and to best mitigate displacement.
   
• Timing and notice provisions: TOPA should provide an adequate timeframe for tenants to organize and form an association, make an informed decision, secure funding, and put an offer together. Timing and notification periods should include ample notice of intent to sell to tenants and should outline timeframes for notification, statements of interests, negotiations, and time for residents to secure financing and financial assistance if needed. All notices should be provided in writing. Typical notice periods range between several months to several years.
   
• Second right of refusal: If tenants choose to forgo their TOPA rights, they should have the opportunity to assign their rights to a qualified affordable housing provider, community land trust, or other nonprofit. To preserve affordability, policymakers should ensure the third-party purchaser will maintain the property as affordable. Policymakers and tenants can also consider a second right of refusal for municipal governments such as Washington, D.C.'s District Opportunity to Purchase.
   
• COPA and TOPA: While these policies are related, they differ in important ways. With TOPA, tenants are empowered to negotiate directly in the sale of their building or can choose to assign that right to another entity, while with COPA, that ability is given to a list of qualified nonprofits. Which policy is better will depend on a jurisdiction’s policy goals, market conditions, capacity of local housing nonprofits, availability of funding and financing, and capacity for tenant organizing and education.
   
• Adequate funding: Cities and states should dedicate funding to adequately support all aspects of a TOPA/COPA program to ensure its success. This should include funding for tenant outreach, education, technical assistance, enforcement, and a fund to assist tenant or community purchases such as a housing trust fund.
   
• Outreach and education: In addition to ample notification periods, tenants need substantial information, outreach, and resources to make decisions about TOPA/COPA and actualize their rights.
   
• Technical assistance: Cities and states should provide robust funding to offer adequate technical assistance, including legal counsel and representation. Washington, DC's TOPA program funds support staff at community organizations who help tenants in exercising their TOPA rights. Residents often need support post-purchase and cities must continue providing strong technical assistance to help them succeed in long-term property stewardship.
   
• Enforcement: Cities and states should outline enforcement mechanisms and ensure adequate staffing to enforce a TOPA/COPA policy effectively. The policy should also give tenants  legal recourse options outside of municipal enforcement, such as third-party legal standing, to strengthen enforcement and give residents greater recourse power to assert their rights.

Complementary Policies: TOPA/COPA policies are most effective when paired with robust tenant protections, financing and ownership tools that slow down the real estate transaction process and assist tenants in locating funds. Advance notice of sale policies that require property owners to submit a notice of intent to sell to the city give tenants more time to organize and prepare for a sale. Right of first refusal policies give tenants or non-profit developers the right to match any purchase offer that the property owner accepts on the private market when selling their property. Making acquisition and preservation an eligible use of local housing trust funds is a critical way to ensure tenants or non-profit developers have funds available to buy property in a fast-paced real estate market. Lastly, using the community land trust model as the underlying ownership structure of the acquired land and property is one way to reduce the long-term cost of ownership.