Since 1980, the District’s Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act has required that residential tenants in any building up for sale or demolition must be offered the first opportunity to buy the building—either individually as tenants, turning the building into condominiums, or by forming a tenant association and buying the building as a whole, usually in partnership with a developer of their choosing.

One study found that the law helped preserve around 1,400 units of affordable housing in the District from 2002-2013. Since 2016, D.C. tenants have exercised their rights as part of two dozen deals to preserve affordable housing, according to the District’s Department of Housing and Community Development.

Wah Luck House was one of them. Working with the National Foundation for Affordable Housing as their developer and the DC Housing Finance Agency, the tenants managed to access the $77 million needed to acquire and rehab their building.

It wasn’t the first time, and, thanks to affordable housing advocates, it won’t be the last time the DC Housing Finance Agency helps to finance a deal like this one.

 

Read the source article on funding tenant purchase by Oscar Perry Abello at Next City