“Our city is facing a historic housing crisis—the last thing we need to do is tie ourselves in red tape,” said Mayor Zohran Mamdani. He was joined by Deputy Mayor Leila Bozorg and Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Dina Levy to explain that the Neighborhood Builders Fast Track will speed up housing development and make it faster to build on city-owned land. “This administration is willing to move at the speed of need to make this a city New Yorkers can continue to call home,” he said.

HPD is releasing a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) due May 8 for affordable housing developers who will pre-qualify for the Neighborhood Builders program, with a focus on nonprofit organizations and minority- and women-owned businesses. Once development teams have been qualified, the faster Neighborhood Builders process will be used at sites such as 784-800 Myrtle Ave. in Brooklyn, 1337 Jerome Avenue in the Bronx and 109-43 Farmers Boulevard in Queens, which will together deliver as many as 300 new affordable homes, including around 100 affordable homeownership opportunities at the Bronx and Queens sites.

HPD expects to use the Neighborhood Builders Fast Track to advance development of as many as 1,000 new homes over the next two years. The Neighborhood Builders Fast Track advances the Mamdani administration’s critical goals of creating affordable housing, especially on city-owned land, and speeding up the delivery of housing across the city. On the first day of the administration, Mayor Mamdani signed Executive Orders 4 and 5, establishing the Land Inventory Fast Track (LIFT) and Streamlining Procedures to Expedite Equitable Development (SPEED) task forces, both of which will deliver recommendations this spring.

The LIFT Task Force is working to identify opportunities for housing on city-owned sites, and the SPEED Task Force is working to reform the affordable housing production process, including pre- and post-construction approvals, project financing and lease-up, city officials stated.