When Josh Ayala first received a call about a Brooklyn apartment he had applied for under New York City’s affordable-housing lottery, he was surprised.
It was February 2023, over 8 months since he sent in his application for that apartment building.
“I was like, wait, what? I totally forgot I applied to this,” Ayala, 26, told Business Insider.
The affordable-housing lotteries are run by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, or HPD, and the Housing Development Corporation.
Ayala was 21 when he first learned about the program from a colleague at his old job.
“Someone was talking about the New York City Housing Connect, and they mentioned how you could move into new buildings with affordable rent,” Ayala, 26, said. “I wasn’t ready to move out yet, but I thought it was a good program. I want to make sure I apply to this when I do want to move.”
Fast-forward two years, and it was finally time for him to strike out on his own.
He was coming from a three-bedroom home in Queens, where he lived with his family.
At that time, Ayala had just left his job to pursue his passion in the creative field and was accepted into at ONE School, a program meant to help Black creatives craft a portfolio to work in the ad industry.
“I had already been applying for homes during the program,” Ayala said. “Literally, as soon as I ended that program and got recruited for a job, that’s when I started to hear back from places.”
1 apartment to 450 applicants
To qualify for a lottery apartment, each household must meet specific income requirements, which vary across developments depending on unit size and location.
Both rental and homeownership units are available, and application is free.
While applicants do not need to be US citizens, NYC residents get priority, Aileen Reynolds, the assistant commissioner of housing opportunity at HPD, told BI.
But competition is stiff: According to the HPD, on average, there are 450 applications received per rental unit.
Ayala, an art director, says he also sent out more than 60 applications for different buildings all across NYC. He wanted a spacious apartment with plenty of natural light.
“I feel like in New York, so much of the year is cold or gloomy during the winter. If I’m going to be in a small space and then not have light, it’s going to be very bad for my mental health,” Ayala said. “I was also looking at proximity to things to do and the subway — I didn’t want to be very far removed from things happening.”
Despite viewing a couple of different apartments prior, none of them stood out to him like his current place — located in Greenpoint — which checked off all the items on his list.
The studio had large windows, and came with both a washer and dryer, and dishwasher. It was also six minutes from an East River Route ferry terminal, with East 34th Street in Manhattan as the next stop, and an eight-minute walk from the Greenpoint Avenue subway station.
Ayala knew he had found the right space. Within a month of the viewing, he was offered the apartment and signed the lease. In June 2023, he moved in.
He recently renewed his lease for another year and now pays $2,345 in rent monthly and $230 for the building’s amenity fees.
The median monthly rent for a studio apartment in Greenpoint is $3,988, according to the latest August data from RentHop.com.
“Lease offers are always one or two years — it’s the applicant’s choice — and then they have to be offered a renewal,” Reynolds said. “The city’s rent stabilization program also restricts how much the rent can go up each year.”
Additionally, the income and household size requirements only apply during the initial move-in, Reynolds added.
“Of course, if they’re anticipating a change in their household that they know about at the time of move-in, they should disclose that. But if it’s something that unexpectedly happens several months or even years in, there’s no impact on their lease or their apartment situation,” Reynolds said.
An apartment of his own
The day he moved into the apartment felt surreal because it was his first home, Ayala said.
“And I didn’t have anything really yet because I’ve never been in an apartment, so I had to buy all new things or find things for my space. So it felt like a very blank canvas,” he added.
He estimates the apartment to be around 500 square feet but said the abundance of natural light made it feel more spacious.
“In a way, I’m glad. If it were any bigger, it would be more complicated to clean, maintain, and furnish,” Ayala said.
Ayala’s apartment is cozy, colorful, and filled with art pieces — many of which are his own.
It’s hard to describe his space as any one theme, although he says he likes midcentury and Scandinavian styles. One thing’s for sure — he believes in investing in quality furniture pieces.
“I have spent a good amount of money on my couch, my table, and stuff like that. But to me, the way that I view it is there are pieces that can last me literally forever,” Ayala said, adding that he can always resell them or give them away if he doesn’t want them anymore.
Moving into this apartment also got him even more interested in interior design — so much so that he’s even started a TikTok channel to document his journey transforming and decorating his space.
“I would say investing in your space and making it your style is also important. I’m not just filling a space because I need a couch, so I’m just going to buy any couch and throw it out when I get my dream house,” Ayala said. “To me, that’s wasteful too.”
A life-changing opportunity
Living in NYC doesn’t come cheap, and housing is an even bigger headache: The median sales price for homes hit $785,000 in early 2024, while the median rent in NYC is $3,684. All while city housing inventory is at its lowest since 1968.
Not only that, rents in NYC increased seven times as fast as wages from 2022 to 2023, per a StreetEasy analysis. Even the city’s tech workers — who make $135,000 on average — can’t afford to rent most of the apartments on the market.
And that’s why Ayala is also passionate about sharing his housing lottery journey with his followers on TikTok.
“I’m surprised at how many, who are from New York and have lived there their whole lives, don’t know that this program even exists, Ayala said.
Even though it takes time — sometimes even years — for people to hear back or be successful in their bid, winning the housing lottery could, quite literally, be life-changing.
That’s why he recommends applying to as many places under the housing lottery as possible.
“I feel like a lot of people close the door on opportunities that could potentially come their way before even applying,” Ayala said. “Be open to exploring different areas of the city because you literally never know when you’ll get a call back or get the chance to view an apartment.”
He suggests keeping important documents — such as birth certificates, bank documents, and pay slips — on hand so that they can be easily retrieved when required during the housing lottery application process.
It also helps to ensure the files are labeled correctly for ease of review.
“The person who is going to review the applications is not going to know what it is, and they’re going to have to go in and see what each thing is,” Ayala said. “But if you make that process easier for people, it also makes it easier for them to reach out to you more quickly.”
Have you recently built or renovated your dream home? If you’ve got a story to share, get in touch with me at agoh@businessinsider.com.e
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