NYC Housing Connect lottery: what the site is and how to use it

The NYC Housing Connect lottery is how New York City picks who gets the affordable apartments and homes it helped pay for. A lottery is a random drawing. To enter, make one account on NYC Housing Connect, describe your household once, then apply to each open lottery that fits your income before its deadline. Applying early doesn't help, because your place in line is random.

What is NYC Housing Connect?

NYC Housing Connect is the city's website for finding and applying for affordable rentals and homes for sale in all five boroughs. The city's housing department, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), publishes its rules and the Housing Connect guide.

Some affordable housing has its own application. The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) runs public housing, apartments it owns. It also runs most Section 8 vouchers, which pay part of your rent at a private landlord.

Mitchell-Lama buildings, which the city or state supervises for middle-income households, each keep their own waitlist, a line you join now for an apartment that isn't free yet. HPD's Mitchell-Lama page lists the buildings with open lists and their managing agents: ask the agent for an application. When a building opens its list to new names, it holds the lottery on Housing Connect. HPD says new Mitchell-Lama applicants pay a $75 application fee, which isn't refunded.

Who can apply for a Housing Connect lottery?

Anyone 18 or older can apply, as long as the household's size and yearly income fit the lottery. HPD's Ready, Set, Apply! guide says you'll probably need a Social Security number or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), and that New York City residents usually get priority.

Each lottery's advertisement shows how many homes there are, how many people can live in each one, and the income range your household must fall in. Your household's yearly income must be at or above the bottom of the range and at or below the top. The bottom of the range is the minimum income. It is there because the rent is a set amount, and the building needs to see you can pay it.

The ranges come from HPD's 2026 chart of income limits, written as a percent of area median income (AMI), the middle income in an area. HPD's percents are of its own 100% figure, $169,600 for four people in 2026. That is twice the 50% limit the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published for 2026, which took effect May 1, 2026, so it is higher than HUD's median. Read your household's row; don't work a limit out yourself.

For example, a household of three earning $70,000 a year fits an apartment for households at 50% of AMI, which goes up to $76,350. Your household still has to earn at least that apartment's minimum income. Apply only to lotteries whose range includes your income. If you have a voucher, say so in your profile: HPD's guide says a voucher that covers the rent can stand in for the income range.

How does your Housing Connect account work?

You make one account and describe everyone who will live with you. The profile asks for each person's income, assets such as savings, and any disability. Housing Connect uses those answers to show which lotteries you fit.

Keep the profile up to date. HPD's Ready, Set, Apply! guide says to update it when you get or lose a job, and to check it each time you apply to a new building. In the "Housing Choices" part, say yes to re-rentals: affordable apartments that come free when a tenant moves out. You can't search for them, but saying yes lets Housing Connect pick you at random when one opens.

Some apartments are kept for people who have a mobility, hearing or vision disability, who live in the same community district as the building, or who work for the city. A community district is the local area around the building, served by its own community board. If one of these fits you, put it in your profile and on each application.

What happens after you apply?

After the deadline, every on-time application gets a random number, its log number. The company that runs the lottery for the building reviews applications in log-number order. You may hear back sooner if your number is low or one of the groups above fits you. With a high number, you may not hear back at all, so apply to every lottery that fits.

If your application is picked, you upload documents such as ID and pay stubs, and agree to a credit check or show your rental history. Then you are approved, or you get a letter saying why not and how to appeal. Our guide to what happens after you win a housing lottery walks through each step.

The deadline is firm. HPD's application guides page says applications sent after it are not considered.

How do alerts and updates work?

Housing Connect sends its own alerts about important deadlines, and your dashboard shows the status of every application you've sent. HPD also runs an email list that tells you when new lotteries open; sign up on HPD's Housing Connect page. Use both, and check your dashboard after each deadline.

Where can you get free help?

• Housing Ambassadors. These are community groups, mostly volunteers, that help you prepare and send Housing Connect applications. They don't charge and can't promise you a home. Find one on HPD's Housing Ambassadors page.
• Ready to Rent. Free one-on-one money counseling by phone or in person. A counselor helps you check your credit, work out your income for applications and save for moving costs. Book on the Ready to Rent page.
• The applicant hotline, 212-863-7990. Leave a voicemail with your name and number, and the team calls you back.

The Housing Connect guide is also available in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, French, Haitian Creole, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Urdu, on the application guides page.

Never pay anyone to apply. The city says you don't pay broker fees or application fees for the city-sponsored homes on Housing Connect; Mitchell-Lama waitlists, with their $75 fee, are the exception. Report anyone else who charges by calling 311 or 212-639-9675.

What should you do next?

Make or update your Housing Connect account now, so it's ready before a deadline. Use our qualify check to see which lotteries fit your household's size and income, and see open lotteries and other listings on our New York City page. You apply on the official Housing Connect page. To understand your chances, read our guide to NYC housing lottery odds.