Op-Ed | Building housing faster is an investment in New York’s communities

As published in amNewYork, June 11, 2026
Link to article.

Op-Ed | Building housing faster is an investment in New York’s communities

by Mitchell Netburn
President & CEO, Samaritan Daytop Village

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is cutting red tape when it comes to housing construction. His initiatives will reduce the time it takes to get a project shovel-ready by about a year. This is good news when it comes to addressing our housing crisis.

Accelerating housing construction does more than increase supply. It also delivers immediate economic benefits to local communities and community members.

Affordability is not just about rent levels. It is about whether people have access to good-paying jobs, whether small businesses thrive, and whether neighborhoods see sustained investment. Housing construction directly impacts all of those factors.

At Samaritan Daytop Village, we are seeing this dynamic play out in real time through the Highbridge development in the South Bronx.

Highbridge is a $335 million mixed-use project that will ultimately deliver more than 400 units of affordable, supportive, and transitional housing. But long before the first residents move in, the project is already contributing to the local economy and to the pockets of local residents and small businesses.

Since construction began in late 2024, Highbridge has contributed more than $23 million to the Bronx economy, most of it concentrated in the South Bronx. This investment is showing up in paychecks, storefronts, and local businesses across the community.

Each day, between 350 and 400 workers are on site, earning wages ranging from $20 to $50 per hour. More than 145 of those workers live in the Bronx, including many neighborhoods surrounding Highbridge.

That income has a ripple effect on the local economy. An analysis conducted by our development partner Mega Contracting finds that workers are spending an estimated $35,000 each week at neighborhood restaurants, bodegas, and retail stores. Furthermore, nearly $6 million has already been spent with Bronx-based businesses, with more to come as construction continues.

These are not side effects of development. They are core outcomes when projects are designed, through local hiring initiatives, for example, to invest in the communities where they are built.

This is why speeding up housing construction aligns directly with Mayor Mamdani’s affordability agenda.

When projects are delayed, these economic benefits are delayed as well. Jobs are postponed and local businesses don’t realize additional revenue for the workforce and the construction needs. Communities that have already faced decades of disinvestment are forced to wait even longer for opportunity.

Conversely, when we move projects forward more quickly, we accelerate both housing production and economic growth.

Better still, the impact does not end when construction is complete. When Highbridge opens in 2027, it will create approximately 100 permanent jobs, provide building residents with 30,000 square feet of community space along with on-site services that support long-term stability, like health care, job training, and pathways to employment, and 5,000 square feet of community facility space for childcare or other services available to the wider community.

This is especially important in communities like the South Bronx, where targeted investment can have a transformative effect.

Housing development, when done right, is not just about buildings. It is about building stronger, more resilient communities.

New York cannot afford to treat housing as a slow-moving process any longer. Mayor Mamdani has put forward an urgent and necessary vision and a plan of action, with programs that speed up the start of construction.

We hope to see Mayor Mamdani continue to find ways to speed up construction.

By continuing to prioritize faster housing construction, especially construction focused on affordable housing in communities that need the economic boost, the city has an opportunity to address both supply and affordability at the same time—delivering not only homes, but immediate economic relief to the communities that need it most.

Mitchell Netburn is CEO of Samaritan Daytop Village, a nonprofit that supports 36,000 New Yorkers each year through a comprehensive network of behavioral health, substance use treatment, housing, and social services.