NJ Housing Resource Center (NJHRC): how to search and apply

The New Jersey Housing Resource Center (NJHRC), also called the NJ Housing Resource Center, is New Jersey's free website for finding affordable rentals, homes for sale, accessible homes and temporary housing. You can't apply on it. Search by town or county, open a listing, then contact the landlord or company it names. You can also search by phone at 1-877-428-8844.

What is the NJHRC?

The NJHRC is a list of homes for rent and for sale, run by the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (NJHMFA), the state's housing finance agency. Landlords, real estate agents and the companies that run affordable homes all post on it. So read each listing for its rent and any income limit, the most a household can earn and still rent or buy the home, before you contact it.

How do you search the NJHRC?

1. On the NJHRC home page, choose Find Housing. The state's instructions explain each screen.
2. Pick a type: rental, for sale, accessible, or temporary housing.
3. Pick a town or county. You can also search by ZIP code.
4. Use the Basic tab for bedrooms, bathrooms, ZIP code and whether you have a voucher, which pays part of your rent at a private landlord. Use Advanced for school district, pets and whether credit or criminal checks are required. Use Accessible for the same choices plus accessibility features.
5. If you have a VASH voucher, a voucher for veterans that comes with support from the Department of Veterans Affairs, or other veterans housing help, click Yes next to "Veteran or VASH Recipient."
6. Sort the results by rent, location or date available, or show them on a map. Tick the ones you like to compare them side by side.

How do you read a listing?

Click an address to see the details and the landlord's or agent's contact information. That contact is who takes your application.

Each owner sets its own rules. The state's FAQ says an owner or property manager can ask about income, credit and criminal history, depending on how the building was paid for or the owner's own choice. Fair housing law bans turning you down because of your race, color, national origin, religion, sex, family status or disability. If you think an owner did, you can file a complaint with the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights.

What are New Jersey's 2026 income limits?

Affordable homes under New Jersey's Uniform Housing Affordability Controls (UHAC), the state's rules for these homes, are set aside for one of three income groups. The groups are a share of the regional median income, the middle income in your part of the state: half of households earn more, and half earn less.

• Very low income: 30% of the regional median or less.
• Low income: 50% or less.
• Moderate income: more than 50%, up to 80%.

New Jersey's "very low" group is not the federal government's "very low income", which is about 50% of the median, so go by the percent, not the name. These are the 2026 limits for a household of three, in effect since June 15, 2026; the linked chart has every household size:

A building usually has apartments for more than one group, each at a different rent. Ask the contact which group the apartment you want is for, and the income limit for your household size. These homes also have an asset limit: in 2026, a household with more than $300,000 in savings and other property can't get one. In some cases, the home a household lives in now doesn't count toward that amount.

How long do you have to apply for a lottery home?

You usually have at least 45 days to apply for a new lottery home on the NJHRC, a home whose buyers or renters are drawn at random, or 30 days for a home for sale that is being resold. Under the UHAC rules in effect since November 6, 2025, the company that runs an affordable home must post it on the NJHRC within one day of starting to take applications. It can't hold the lottery, the random drawing that sets the order in which applications are reviewed, until at least 60 days after the first posting.

Look for the same homes in local newspapers and on other housing websites too. The rules don't cover every affordable home: tax-credit buildings, which got a federal tax break for keeping rents low, and some federally funded buildings follow their own rules. If a home you find elsewhere isn't on the NJHRC, ask who runs it.

Who runs the applications?

Many affordable homes in New Jersey are run by private companies that towns and builders hire. These companies take applications, check incomes and keep waitlists, lists of people in line for the next open home. Two that run many homes are Community Grants, Planning & Housing (CGP&H), through its Affordable Homes New Jersey website, and Piazza & Associates. On CGP&H's site, you send one free pre-application, a short first form about your household, then join the waitlist for each home you want from your profile.

The Central Jersey Housing Resource Center (CJHRC) has almost the same name as the NJHRC but is a different group. It is a nonprofit counseling agency, mainly serving Somerset and Hunterdon counties. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) approves it, and lists it with other approved agencies in its housing counselor search. It helps people find and apply for affordable rentals there, and it doesn't charge. If a town or building sends you to it, follow its instructions.

What should you do after you find a home?

1. Write down the contact and any deadline on the listing or on the company's page.
2. Contact the company or landlord it names, or send its pre-application. The NJHRC can't do this for you.
3. Ask which income group the home is for and what the limit is for your household size.
4. Gather ID and proof of income for everyone in your household before you apply.
5. Apply to more than one home, because affordable homes are filled from waitlists and lotteries, and each one has many applicants.

See open listings on our New Jersey page, and use our qualify check to see which ones fit your household's size and income. To find out which housing offices are taking names for Section 8 vouchers today, check our New Jersey waitlists page and our guide to New Jersey Section 8. Our guide to how housing lotteries work explains what happens after the drawing.