Mayor Zohran Mamdani aims to streamline process to lease, build affordable housing in NYC

Josephine Stratman, New York Daily News on May 13, 2026

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NEW YORK — Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced on Wednesday a slate of changes aimed at at expediting the construction and leasing process for affordable housing.

The package includes measures that would shorten the application window for affordable housing lotteries, from 60 days to 21 days, and speed up the screening process for prospective tenants in order to get people into apartments faster.

“I can’t find somebody in New York City who is in favor of more delays when it comes to affordable housing, especially when that’s within the city’s control,” Mamdani said at a Bronx press conference. “So we want to make sure that we’re exhausting every single possibility.”

The city is currently facing a housing crisis with a vacancy rate of just 1.4%, the lowest in in decades, as real estate prices and inflation tick upwards and the housing supply remains low.

The reforms would also cut down the time it takes to build new units, including by shortening the city’s pre-certification timeline and improving the bureaucratic processes for fire alarm system inspections and emergency plan approvals.

It would also streamline the leasing process for homeless New Yorkers in order to secure them permanent homes faster.

The reforms were unveiled as part of a broader report on how to expedite affordable housing development. Mamdani created the task force behind the report, called “SPEED,” or Streamlining Procedures to Expedite Equitable Development, on the first day of his administration.

The first changes are expected to be rolled out in the next six months, Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Dina Levy told the Daily News in an interview.

Levy said the on-ramps to process to get into affordable housing is taking “just way, way, way too long.”

“Despite the fact that HPD is producing all of this affordable housing, huge numbers every year, we’re not leasing up those units quickly enough,” Levy said.

The reforms, which were developed after the task force met with hundreds of industry insiders, developers and city employees, were well-received, even by those often critical of the mayor.

“This is the right approach, and Mayor Mamdani deserves credit for moving decisively and for committing to measurable results,” Partnership for New York City CEO Steve Fulop said in a statement.

Andrew Rein, president of the independent Citizens Budget Commission, also applauded the reforms.

“Accelerating housing production and occupancy will reduce costs and get people into needed homes more quickly,” Rein said. “Kudos to Mayor Mamdani, Deputy Mayor Bozorg, Deputy Mayor Kerson, and all their colleagues for tackling the nuts and bolts needed to help solve our city’s housing crisis, and for setting clear benchmarks to measure success.”

The reforms do not require changes to city or state law, the mayor’s office said.