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…