NYCHA public housing application: how to apply and check status

To file a NYCHA application for public housing, the apartments the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) owns and rents out, use its self-service portal and pick two boroughs. You give a few facts about your household and send no documents. Then renew the application every two years and keep your income and address up to date while you wait.

Is NYCHA public housing the same as the NYC housing lottery?

No. NYCHA is the city's housing authority (the local housing office). It owns and runs public housing, and it also runs a Section 8 voucher program, where a voucher pays part of your rent to a private landlord. Housing Connect is a separate city website for affordable housing lotteries, where applications are put in a random order. The city's Housing Development Corporation also lists first-come apartments there, which go to whoever applies first and qualifies. You can apply to NYCHA and to all of these at the same time.

How do you apply for NYCHA public housing?

1. Apply online on NYCHA's self-service portal, from a phone or computer. If you don't have internet, book an appointment at a NYCHA Walk-in Center and use a kiosk there. The city's ACCESS NYC page says you can also get a paper application by mail from NYCHA's Customer Contact Center at 718-707-7771, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. NYCHA's Tenant Selection and Assignment Plan offers paper forms to people with disabilities, so ask for one when you call if you need it.
2. Pick two boroughs. You can't apply for a particular building. You choose a first and second borough among the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island.
3. Give your household's facts: total income, who lives with you and your current living situation.
4. Watch for a letter from NYCHA within 30 days. If none comes, call the Customer Contact Center.

Applying is free. NYCHA says to report anyone who asks for money to its Inspector General at 212-306-3355.

Who qualifies for NYCHA public housing?

You qualify as a family if you are one person, or two or more people related by blood, marriage, domestic partnership, adoption, guardianship or court-awarded custody. The person applying must be 18 or older, or an emancipated minor. At least one household member must be a U.S. citizen or have eligible immigration status. There is no minimum income.

Your household's yearly income must be at or under NYCHA's income limit, the most a household of your size can earn and still qualify. NYCHA's eligibility page lists these limits:

The public housing limits match the 2026 low-income limits for the New York City area, often called the 80% limits. HUD, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, sets them each year. NYCHA's Section 8 limit for one person is $56,700, a little under HUD's 2026 limit of $59,400 at about half the area median income, the middle income in the area. If your income is in between, ask NYCHA which limit applies.

Some buildings are only for seniors. There, the head or co-head of the household must be 62 or older, and so must every other household member.

How does NYCHA rank applicants?

NYCHA gives each application a priority code, a label for how urgent your need is, from the answers you give. It offers apartments to the highest priority first, and within each priority to the oldest applications, so emergency codes go first.

N0, N1, N4 and the working family codes apply only if you live or work in New York City. A working family is one whose income comes from a job, or whose head of household is 62 or older or gets disability benefits. NYCHA's priority page sorts working families by income, as a share of the area median income:

These bands top out below NYCHA's public housing income limits, for example $90,750 against $95,000 for one person. If your working household earns between the two, you can still apply, but ask NYCHA which priority code you would get.

A worked example. A parent with two children earns $60,000 a year from a job. That is above $43,750 and under $72,900, so the family gets W2. In public housing, rent is 30% of income after subtracting set amounts called deductions. HUD's 2026 deduction is $500 for each child, so the family's income after deductions is $59,000, and its rent would be about $1,475 a month. HUD lets housing offices keep using the older $480 amount until January 1, 2027, which would make the rent about $1,476. Other deductions, such as child care, lower it further.

NYCHA also posts a chart of emergency applications waiting in each borough, with the oldest application date it is reaching now.

What documents do you need?

None to apply. NYCHA checks your answers at the eligibility interview. It schedules interviews from the apartments it expects to come free over the next six months, by apartment size and borough. The city's ACCESS NYC page says to bring the originals of:

• your marriage or domestic partner certificate, if you have one;
• birth certificates and Social Security cards for everyone who will live with you;
• proof of immigration status, if it applies;
• proof of where you live, such as a recent utility bill, and your last gas and electric bill;
• rent receipts for the last six months, and your lease if you have one;
• proof of income, such as an award letter or pay stubs, and proof of savings, such as a bank statement.

NYCHA has also asked for the name, address and phone number of each landlord you had in the past three years, and income and savings records for the last 12 months. Your interview notice lists exactly what to bring. Our documents checklist shows how to keep them ready.

How do you check status, renew and report changes?

Use NYCHA's self-service portal. The head of household needs a working email address and a Social Security number to sign in. You can see your status and interview date there, and change your address, phone number, income and borough choices.

• Renew every two years. Your application stays active for 24 months. Click "Update/Renew My Case" before then, or NYCHA closes your case. Renewing keeps your original application date. NYCHA's plan says it sends reminders 60 and 30 days before the deadline.
• Report changes. Update your address, phone, email, income, household and reason for applying whenever they change.
• Don't miss the interview. NYCHA's plan says that if you miss it, you can still do it by phone within 90 days. After that, NYCHA closes your case.

Can you apply for NYCHA Section 8?

NYCHA's Section 8 waitlist opens only now and then. Its Section 8 applicant page says whether it is taking new applications, and whether it is giving out vouchers to people already on its list. If you're on the list, keep your contact details current in the self-service portal, because NYCHA contacts people by the details it has. Two other agencies also run Section 8 programs in the city: the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development and New York State Homes and Community Renewal. Our New York waitlists page shows the voucher and public housing lists in the state that are open now.

What can you do while you wait?

Apply to Housing Connect lotteries and to first-come apartments too, since you can be on those and on NYCHA's list at the same time. Our New York City page shows the city's open lotteries and apartments, and the qualify check shows which ones fit your household's income. Our guides to the NYC housing lottery and to what public housing is explain the other ways in.