Mayor Zohran Mamdani needs to make some big changes before moving forward with the City Council’s well-intentioned but flawed effort to steer more distressed housing into the hands of nonprofit building managers. The Community Opportunity to Purchase Act, part of a batch of bills vetoed by ex-mayor Eric Adams on his final day in office, has been reintroduced and will likely come up for a vote later this year — but it will need guardrails to keep swindlers and bunglers from making the city’s housing crisis even worse.

“Every year, tons of buildings change hands and rents go up and working families are displaced. Many times, buildings with many violations get new owners and those violations don’t go away,” City Councilwoman Sandy Nurse, lead sponsor of the bill, told me. “Under COPA, nonprofits would get a 20-day shot at putting down an offer and acquiring those buildings, getting them fixed up, keeping the rents low, and keeping these families here. The goal here is to create an opportunity for mission-driven community organizations that provide housing to have a shot to compete in a very hot all-cash market.”

Nurse’s bill, which has 27 co-sponsors, would restrict landlords from simply selling their building on the open market; instead they would have to notify the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and a list of approved nonprofits that would be allowed to bid on the property before any other potential buyers. Should the seller choose to sell to a private buyer, the nonprofits would also have to be informed and given a chance to match the offer.

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