The Mamdani administration moved quickly to put the Fast Track into action, adopting a clear and consistent methodology in April to measure affordable housing production relative to each community district’s existing housing stock. The 12 districts will be recalculated every five years based on updated affordable housing production, with the next list issued in October 2031.

DCP will host a virtual public information session on December 3 to explain how the Affordable Housing Fast Track works and answer questions from New Yorkers. Additional information, including an interactive map, is also available on DCP’s website.

The Affordable Housing Fast Track is a key part of Block by Block, the Mamdani administration’s housing plan. The plan calls for creating 200,000 new affordable homes and preserving another 200,000 over the next decade, backed by a $22 billion investment in affordable housing capital over five years.

In the coming months, the administration will explore City-sponsored land use actions in these districts to deliver urgently needed affordable housing. The administration has also moved quickly to implement other voter-approved land use tools, including the City’s first Expedited Land Use Review Procedure (ELURP) at 351 Powers Ave. in the Bronx. Approved by the City Council in May, the project will create approximately 84 affordable homes.

The administration is also advancing an ambitious land use agenda that includes a citywide transit-oriented development proposal, neighborhood plans including two already underway in the Bronx and Brooklyn and new housing on City-owned land. At 100 Gold Street, for example, the administration is advancing a plan for nearly 4,000 new homes, including approximately 1,000 permanently income-restricted affordable and rent-stabilized.

Block by Block meets the city’s housing crisis with the scale and urgency New Yorkers deserve. Alongside building and preserving affordable homes, the plan includes standing up to negligent landlords, strengthening tenant power, investing in public housing and cutting the red tape that prevents affordable homes from becoming reality.

As Mayor Mamdani has said, New York cannot afford half-measures or delays when working people are being pushed out of the city they built.

“NYHC is excited to see changes approved by voters last year start to take effect. The Affordable Housing Fast Track is an important step toward creating more affordable housing in neighborhoods that have historically added too little. Our NYC Housing Tracker has shown the same pattern over the past five years: affordable housing is not being distributed equitably across the city. As New York confronts its housing crisis, every neighborhood must do its part to expand the city’s affordable housing supply,” said Rachel Fee, Executive Director of New York Housing Conference.

“Less than a year after voters approved the Affordable Housing Fast Track, the city is taking a major step towards making it real. By streamlining land-use review in the districts that have built the least, the city can get shovels in the ground faster to build the housing New Yorkers need. Today’s unveiling of these 12 districts means more affordable homes, delivered sooner, in the neighborhoods that need them most. The Building Congress is proud to stand with the City as we build a more affordable New York together,” said Carlo Scissura, President and CEO of NY Building Congress.

“Last November, New Yorkers voted overwhelmingly for a city that builds, because they know more homes mean lower rents, stronger neighborhoods, and a chance for the next generation to stay here. Open New York fought alongside a broad coalition to pass these measures to make our city fairer and more affordable, and we are excited to see them put to work. Many of the Community Districts on this list have built almost no housing in years, and new homes there would bring real relief to families being priced out. These reforms are already changing our housing landscape, and we are already seeing some of the Council Members representing these low-growth neighborhoods bringing solutions to the table. Everyone has a part to play, especially the people who know their neighborhoods best, and we look forward to working with anyone ready to be a proactive leader in building more homes for their neighbors and a more affordable city together,” said Annemarie Gray, Executive Director of Open New York.

“New York City’s housing shortage is too large for any one neighborhood to solve, and meeting it will require every part of the city to be part of the solution,” said Tom Wright, President & CEO of the Regional Plan Association. “That is why voters approved the implementation of the Affordable Housing Fast Track. It is an important tool to help move critical affordable housing projects forward, while maintaining a meaningful role for communities in the review process. With the City estimating a need for roughly 700,000 additional homes over the next decade, progress requires better processes and more collaboration to ensure we deliver on what New Yorkers have voted for.”

“ANHD supported creation of the Affordable Housing Fast Track because we’ve long recognized the need for a fairer distribution of affordable housing development across all New York City neighborhoods,” said Barika X. Williams, Executive Director of the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development (ANHD). “Today’s release of the 12 Fast Track Community Districts brings us closer to a more equitable city where every community contributes to expanding the affordable housing we so desperately need.”

“There are pronounced geographical disparities in the construction of affordable housing, with many neighborhoods producing none or next to none,” said Howard Slatkin, Executive Director of Citizens Housing and Planning Council. “The launch of a fast track process for approving land use actions that create affordable housing will speed the process of remedying these disparities, and ensuring that no neighborhood is off-limits to people seeking affordable homes.”

“Over half of New York City renters are rent-burdened. To build the housing New Yorkers need, we need all hands on deck—and all districts contributing their fair share. The Affordable Housing Fast Track speeds up the process to approve new housing, with a focus on neighborhoods that have built the least affordable housing. It is both an efficient and equitable solution to a shortage decades in the making,” said Catherine Vaughan, Co-Executive Director, Abundance New York.

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