City officials on Wednesday said it will implement reforms to speed up the process of developing, building and leasing affordable housing.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Deputy Mayor Leila Bozorg and Deputy Mayor Julia Kerson released the Streamlining Procedures to Expedite Equitable Development (“SPEED”) report, which includes reforms with environmental review and planning; pre-development and financing; permitting and approvals; and marketing and leasing.
As a part of the overhaul, the administration will cut the pre-certification process for many projects requiring zoning changes from roughly two years to six months. The city will also reduce the permitting timelines for both new construction and office-to-residential conversion projects by approximately five months.
To move New Yorkers into completed affordable housing more quickly, the city will also overhaul the housing lottery system. The median time to complete applicant approvals for lottery projects in fiscal year 2025 was 210 days, the report said. In order to improve this timeframe, the city will shorten the lottery application period from 60 to 21 days; simplify income verification on applications; shorten the period during which marketing agents must select applicants from the randomized lottery pool; streamline and/or centralize the submission of paper applications for Housing Connect; extend current waiver policies for apartments; and expedite or eliminate duplicative apartment inspections to allow CityFHEPS voucher holders to move into homes more quickly.
In addition, the city will look into ways on how to move shelter clients into permanent homes faster, the report said.
“These delays are not inevitable. They are the result of broken systems and a failure of political will,” Mamdani said in a statement. “New Yorkers cannot afford to wait years for affordable housing while projects sit trapped in bureaucracy. SPEED is about making government deliver – faster, fairer and at the scale this crisis demands.”
Adopting these reforms will likely cut the median lease-up time to fewer than 100 days from the current 210 days, the report said.
