Remaking the Economy: How Policy Can Help Tenants Purchase Their Homes

In a growing number of cities across the United States, housing advocates are getting laws passed that give tenants the ability to purchase, either directly or through a nonprofit, their own apartments. Increasingly, these policies are emerging as a powerful anti-displacement strategy. But these policies are hard won, and not always easy to implement. Even in cities where tenants have established this ability in law, they often have to stave off efforts to dial back these legislative gains.

In this 90-minute webinar, cosponsored and co-moderated by NPQ and Shelterforce, a panel of folks who have been reporting on, fighting for, and using these policies will offer their perspectives on this powerful tool.

This webinar will explore:

• How can local policy help tenants buy apartment buildings from landlords and collectively own property themselves?
• How do tenant opportunity to purchase act (TOPA) and community opportunity to purchase act (COPA) policies work in practice?
• How do tenants go from having a “right” to purchase to the ability to purchase? What are the financing challenges?
• In what cities do tenants enjoy the right of first refusal to buy property when a property they are renting comes up for sale?
• What are the sources of resistance to tenant right-to-purchase policies? Where is this resistance seen and how are housing advocates and tenants responding?  
• How can tenant right-to-purchase policies promote ongoing housing affordability?
• How does tenants having a first right of refusal to buy increase tenant power?

Whether you’re a nonprofit leader, board member, or engaged in community-based organizing, this webinar will provide you with real-life examples and lessons learned that can inform your work in your own community.