The New York Housing Conference released a new case study examining delays in leasing newly constructed affordable housing through NYC’s Housing Connect lottery system and outlining practical reforms to accelerate move-ins for low-income and homeless New Yorkers.
The analysis found it took 27 months to lease 180 newly constructed affordable apartments in the Bronx, including 18 months after the lottery closed, even after the building had received a Temporary Certificate of Occupancy and was safe for residents.
The case study, “Why It Took 2 Years to Rent Affordable Apartments Through NYC’s Housing Lottery and How to Fix It” identifies administrative bottlenecks that slow lease-up timelines and offers recommendations to streamline the process while maintaining fairness and compliance.
NYHC’s analysis aims to inform efforts underway by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his team who have publicly committed to improving the housing lottery system, including through the Mayor’s Streamlining Procedures to Expedite Equitable Development Task Force (“SPEED Task Force”), which is examining ways to modernize housing development and approval processes. The NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) has made some important improvements to their marketing guidelines since this building finished leasing up in 2025 but much more needs to be done.
- The application and review processes are inefficient and ineffective: The development received approximately 70,000 Housing Connect applications and 5,115 applications were batched for review but just 135 households ultimately moved in – with four out of five households unresponsive or ineligible.
- Repetitive documentation and agency oversight added months of delay: It took six-to-eight weeks for lottery advertisement approvals, required multiple HPD sign-offs and marketing plan changes caused months-long delays.
- Administrative hold ups caused delays in the homeless referral pipeline: It took nearly eight months to approve tenants for the 46 units reserved for people experiencing homelessness once the building was ready for occupancy. 189 homeless referrals were processed but three out of four referred households did not submit required paperwork.
- Duplicative inspection requirements caused move-in delays: Even though the building had already received a DOB inspection for occupancy, 56 tenants using rental assistance required 18 additional unit inspections, including extensive CityFHEPS and SOTA inspections adding significant delays to move-ins.
Recommendations
The report outlines several practical reforms to accelerate lease-up timelines:
- Shift HPD oversight of marketing agents from step-by-step monitoring to audit-based compliance
- Use technology to reduce processing burdens and filter ineligible and uninterested applicants earlier
- Ensure homeless referrals arrive income-eligible with rental assistance pre-approved
- Allow more direct coordination between developers and shelters
- Expand virtual and third-party inspections
- Eliminate duplicative inspection requirements for newly constructed units using City rental assistance
The report was covered in Politico this morning.