Want to Enter an Affordable Housing Lottery? You'll Be up Against 696 Other Applicants

Want to Enter an Affordable Housing Lottery? You’ll Be up Against 696 Other Applicants

August 4, 2015

According to a new report from the Daily News, for every affordable apartment offered through the city’s housing lotteries since 2013, there were 696 applicants, leaving you with a measly 0.14 percent chance of being selected. “All told, there were 2.9 million applications for 4,174 affordable units available from 72 lotteries run by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD),” says the News, yet another signifier that average New Yorkers are struggling to pay ever-increasing rents.

There are, however, 8,500 affordable apartments currently under construction (the most since HPD was established in 1978), but many of these units are priced even higher than market-rate apartments. For example, DNAinfo reported yesterday that a new Downtown Brooklyn affordable housing building at City Point will offer 150 affordable units out of its 200 total. But these “will be set aside for people making up to 165 percent of the area median income, or $142,395 for a family of four.” And at 282 Lefferts Avenue in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, “affordable” studios will go for $1,900 a month, even though the average market-rate studio in the area rents for $1,334.

To qualify for an affordable apartment, an applicant must meet financial requirements related to the Area Median Income (AMI) and size of the unit. AMI, though, is based on the entire NYC region. This year, for a family of four, it came out to $86,300. But according to the Census Bureau, Brooklyn’s median income in 2013 was $46,085. Therefore, many housing advocates argue that the system is flawed and doesn’t accurately consider what residents in low-income communities can afford.

[Via NYDN and DNAinfo]

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