Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration will announce plans to dramatically speed up New York City's affordable housing lottery, which currently leaves thousands of units vacant for months despite overwhelming demand. The city received more than seven million applications last year for approximately 10,000 affordable apartments.

The painstaking vetting process currently takes almost seven months to place tenants, according to city data. The proposed changes aim to reduce the median time units remain empty to less than three months by shortening the application period from 60 to 21 days and simplifying income verification requirements. Some changes could be implemented by year's end.

Commissioner Dina Levy of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development said the reforms require no city or state law changes. "It's insane," she said. "You've got people really hungry for housing; you've got owners carrying interest on the loans they took to build these buildings."

The announcement comes as the city faces a housing crisis pushing rents higher and driving working-class residents out. Mamdani plans to invest $4 billion in capital funding for the housing department over five years.