By Miguel Montero, Program Manager, Equitable Development and Land Use
July 8, 2026
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is one step closer to passing the Tenant and Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (TCOPA), which would give tenants in unincorporated parts of the county the right to be notified when their building is about to be sold and a small window of time to purchase their home with the help of a nonprofit developer or community land trust. On July 7, the supervisors unanimously agreed to move forward with drafting the legislation.
Under TCOPA, mobile home parks and owners of buildings with five or more rental units would have to notify affordable housing groups about their intent to sell. This heads up would give these groups time to partner with current tenants to put an offer on the building.
Why does Los Angeles County want tenants to buy their buildings? Because it helps keep rental housing permanently affordable, for one thing. Instead of being forced out by a new owner who drives rents up, tenants get to stay where they are, with rents stabilized for the long term. Laws like this also help ensure more rental housing is community- rather than corporate-owned. Our research into corporate-owned housing has shown a clear and alarming pattern: across the US, institutional landlords, including LLCs and corporations, are amassing large housing portfolios, displacing long-standing residents, inflating home prices, and undermining neighborhood stability.
SAJE strongly supports TCOPA because we believe in sustainable housing and homelessness solutions that center tenants. This law means a fair chance for residents and the community to buy their buildings when they go on sale, while mitigating corporation and housing speculators’ extractive control over residential properties with the mere intent to profit. We look forward to partnering with the Los Angeles County Supervisors to approve a favorable TCOPA policy for unincorporated residents. We’d like the county to explore incentives for property owners (especially smaller residential owners) to prioritize the sale to tenants, who otherwise may be outbid by corporations and housing speculators. We’d also like to encourage local municipalities to adopt similar policies: in particular, money from Measure ULA could be used to fund similar programs in the City of Los Angeles.
