Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Apartments for homeless families sit empty for months. NYC has a new plan to change that.
By
Karen Yi
and
David Brand
Published May 13, 2026
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
By
Karen Yi
and
David Brand
Published May 13, 2026
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
New York City set out to address its growing homelessness crisis seven years ago by requiring large housing developers to reserve thousands of new apartments for people living in shelters.
The city’s shelter population has only grown since then. But so has the time it takes to fill these apartments set aside for homeless New Yorkers — reaching a median eight months last fiscal year, according to city data.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday will unveil a plan meant to streamline the leasing process to move some families and individuals from shelters to housing much faster. The city’s housing and homeless services agencies will test a new pipeline between developers and shelter providers that eliminates many of the bureaucratic obstacles that currently prolong the process, officials told Gothamist.
The initiative is set to begin this fall and comes as the city faces a severe housing shortage, with more than 83,000 New Yorkers sleeping in homeless shelters every night and apartments reserved for them sitting empty.
“New Yorkers living in shelter feel the consequences of housing delays more than anyone else,” Mamdani told Gothamist in a written statement. “Every month a vacant affordable apartment sits tied up in bureaucracy is another month a family remains without permanent housing.”
The pilot program, known as Making Accelerated Transitions to Coordinated Housing, or MATCH, is part of a broader set of housing reforms proposed by a task force Mamdani created on his first day in office. The initiative will allow developers to work directly with shelter providers to find tenants for their homeless set-aside units, rather than requiring city agencies to identify available units, refer potential renters and relay the information between the two parties.
“It’s taking the middleman out of the equation,” said Department of Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Dina Levy.
Levy said the city will test the changes in up to 10 new developments and then assess the results to ensure that developers and marketing agents aren’t “cherry-picking” whom they consider the most desirable tenants.
“We are going to make sure that is not what happens,” Levy said. “That we haven’t sacrificed fairness.”
The new plan marks the latest evolution of the city’s homeless set-aside program, which was approved by the City Council in late 2019. About 62,000 people stayed in Department of Homeless Services shelters at the time. The Council and then-Mayor Bill de Blasio negotiated a plan to require new apartment buildings that have more than 40 units and receive government financing or tax breaks to reserve at least 15% of units for people living in homeless shelters.
More than 3,700 households moved from Department of Homeless Services shelters last fiscal year into newly constructed units under the program, according to the most recent Mayor’s Management Report, a scorecard of city agency performance.
But the median amount of time it took to move from shelter to the units ballooned to nearly eight months — two months longer than in 2024 and more than double the time in 2021, city data shows.
Carlina Rivera, a former city councilmember who now leads a lobbying group for affordable housing developers and owners, said the pilot program will eliminate bureaucratic delays and allow landlords to collect rent on units otherwise sitting empty.
“We need that efficiency,” said Rivera, president of the New York State Association For Affordable Housing, which had advocated for changes. “We need to speed up this process now more than ever.”
The city’s housing agency last year streamlined the lengthy process for re-renting vacant affordable apartments through the city’s housing lottery after facing criticism from property owners and tenants.
But despite an affordability crisis, the city has struggled to renovate and fill thousands of vacant public housing units, as well as thousands of units in supportive housing developments designed for formerly homeless New Yorkers with special needs.
Homeless New Yorkers now spend more than a year in shelters after they first move in, according to city data. Last year, single men stayed in shelters for an average of 378 days, while families with children remained in a shelter for 372 days.
Mamdani will also announce a new task force to examine the supportive housing vacancy problem, a City Hall spokesperson said.
Tagged
Zohran Mamdani
economy
homelessness
housing
manhattan
new york city
Karen Yi
Karen Yi covers homelessness and poverty. She joined the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom in 2020. Before that, Karen covered Newark for the Star-Ledger and spent almost a decade working for newspapers in New Jersey and Florida. She grew up in Miami and has a dog named Cashew. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-589-1460.
Read more
David Brand
David is a reporter covering housing for Gothamist and WNYC. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 908-310-3960.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
It's a gorgeous weather weekend in NYC: How to enjoy it
Summer Streets, concerts, history tours — there are a lot of good reasons to get outside.
By
Apolline Lamy
Published Jul 31, 2026 at 3:25 p.m. ET
Better light rail in North Jersey? Hopeful advocates have a plan.
They hope momentum from the successful "A Better PATH" campaign can continue into changes for light rail.
By
Michael Sol Warren
News
Better light rail in North Jersey? Hopeful advocates have a plan.
They hope momentum from the successful "A Better PATH" campaign can continue into changes for light rail.
By
Michael Sol Warren
Mayor Mamdani taps veteran Black leader to head NYPD watchdog
By
Elizabeth Kim
and
Samantha Max
NY looks to shut down Kalshi, have it pay $36 billion in new lawsuit
By
Jimmy Vielkind
NYC says UES Legionnaires’ outbreak is over, after recording 7th death
By
Caroline Lewis
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .