Legislation by Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA) sounds nice on paper — giving nonprofits the first shot to buy apartment buildings when owners sell. But when you read what’s actually in it, it’s a nightmare for regular people who just want housing to work in this city again. Here’s what COPA really does:

• It forces building owners to tell the City before they can even list their property. That’s right — another layer of paperwork and bureaucracy before anything can happen.

• It gives certain nonprofits “first rights” to buy — which sounds fine until you realize most of these groups don’t have the money or capacity actually to do it. Property sales will get stuck for months while buildings sit in limbo.

• It will scare away buyers and lenders in a market that’s already hanging by a thread.

• It means fewer sales, fewer renovations, fewer new projects, and less housing overall.

And who pays for that slowdown? Regular New Yorkers — through higher rents, higher taxes, and fewer homes to go around.

Politicians keep saying they want more affordable housing, but this bill does the opposite. It slows everything down and hurts the people already struggling to find or keep a home. We need a real plan that fixes housing — not one that jams up the process just to score political points.