A 34-member majority backs legislation to take distressed buildings from neglectful landlords
NYC Council Majority Rallies Behind Bill to Overhaul Broken Foreclosure Tool
On March 9, 2026, New York City Council members, tenants, homeowners, and housing advocates gathered at City Hall to rally in support of the SAFER Homes Act, a sweeping piece of legislation — Int. 657 — that would overhaul the city’s dormant and deeply flawed Third Party Transfer program and create a new legal framework for taking distressed buildings away from negligent landlords and placing them with mission-driven owners. The bill is backed by a 34-member Council majority, and its lead sponsor, Council Member Pierina Ana Sanchez of the Bronx, chairs the Housing and Buildings Committee. The rally came hours before the bill received its first official committee hearing.
What Is the Third Party Transfer Program — and Why Did It Fail?
The Third Party Transfer program, known as TPT, was created in the 1990s as a tool of last resort: a mechanism by which the city could foreclose on properties that were so severely distressed — accumulated tax debt, serious housing code violations, uninhabitable conditions — that no conventional enforcement action was working. Under TPT, the city could transfer ownership of such buildings to a third party, ideally a nonprofit housing provider, to rescue them for tenants. The program worked in some cases. In others, it produced serious harm. In the mid-2010s, TPT foreclosures disproportionately swept up small properties owned by low-income Black and Latino homeowners in neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy and Flatbush, stripping them of equity for relatively modest tax debts while leaving larger, more politically connected owners untouched. The backlash was fierce. Housing advocates, elected officials, and affected homeowners raised the alarm, and the program was effectively frozen nearly a decade ago. Since then, the city has lacked a functional legal mechanism to deal with its worst buildings — those where landlord negligence has produced conditions that endanger tenants but where conventional fines and inspections have failed to compel action.
What the SAFER Homes Act Does
The SAFER Homes Act redesigns the foreclosure tool from the ground up. The legislation strengthens notice requirements, ensuring that homeowners facing foreclosure proceedings have robust legal protections and adequate opportunity to respond before losing their properties. It expands payment options for owners with tax debt, creating more equitable pathways for small and working-class homeowners to address financial distress without losing their homes. Critically, it refocuses the program’s enforcement power on its intended target: truly distressed, deeply neglected buildings where tenants are living in dangerous conditions and the landlord has demonstrated either unwillingness or incapacity to correct them. And it creates structured pathways for transferring ownership of those buildings to tenant-led cooperatives, community land trusts, or mission-driven nonprofit housing providers — organizations that are legally accountable for maintaining the properties as permanently affordable housing.
Council Members Speak
Council Member Sanchez was direct about what is at stake. “For too long, tens of thousands of New Yorkers have lived in undignified conditions because negligent landlords refuse to do what’s right — no more,” she said at the rally. “The SAFER Homes Act offers a new path forward.” Majority Leader Shaun Abreu called the legislation essential to keeping pace with the aging of the city’s housing stock. “As our apartment stock continues to age, our laws have to keep pace with reality. The SAFER Homes Act gives the city stronger tools to stabilize distressed properties and work with mission-driven partners to keep them safe, habitable, and affordable for the people who live there,” Abreu said. Deputy Leader Chris Banks praised the bill’s balanced approach: “It strengthens notice requirements, expands fair payment options, and protects vulnerable homeowners while ensuring that truly distressed and vacant properties are addressed responsibly.” Council Member Gale Brewer added that the bill was “about protecting people, preserving equity, and making sure every building in our city is truly a home.”
The Connection to the Mamdani Agenda
The SAFER Homes Act sits squarely within the Mamdani administration’s housing agenda, which has included the appointment of Cea Weaver to lead the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, the convening of “Rental Ripoff” public hearings across all five boroughs, and aggressive legal intervention in the Pinnacle Group bankruptcy to protect over 5,200 tenants in 83 buildings with a combined 14,000-plus complaints. The legislation does not require Mamdani’s signature at this stage — it is a City Council initiative — but its alignment with his tenant protection priorities means it is likely to receive strong support from the administration if it passes. The bill’s 34-member Council majority represents a strong supermajority; the Council has 51 members total.
Advocates and Tenant Voices
The rally was attended by residents from buildings across the city who testified to the human cost of landlord neglect and the inadequacy of existing enforcement mechanisms. Their accounts — of mold, pests, collapsed ceilings, broken heating, and years of unanswered 311 complaints — provided a concrete grounding for the legislative argument. Housing advocates pointed out that the combination of the rent freeze move at the Rent Guidelines Board, the Pinnacle intervention, and the SAFER Homes Act represented a coherent and unprecedented cluster of tenant-protective policy action at both the executive and legislative levels. Int. 657 full text is available for public review through the NYC Council’s Legistar database. The Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development tracks distressed building conditions and has been a leading advocate for the SAFER Homes Act. Met Council on Housing provides tenant education and policy research on housing stabilization. NYC Housing Preservation and Development oversees enforcement of housing standards and will be a key implementing agency if the SAFER Homes Act passes. The committee hearing will generate public testimony and a formal record before the bill proceeds to a full Council vote. Given the 34-member majority already committed, passage is considered likely — the question is when, and whether the Mamdani administration will move aggressively to use the new tool once it becomes law.
