NYC’s Housing Connect Lottery System Urgently Needs Reform

In 2024, the NYC Housing Connect lottery system received approximately 6 million applications for roughly 10,000 available affordable units. Competition was so fierce that each applicant had just a 0.2 percent chance of securing a place to call home.

This online portal, created to streamline the process for applicants and create a more equitable one-stop shop for application management, is clearly overwhelmed. Although the system may now be easier for city agencies to manage, it continues to create frustration, inefficiency and lost opportunities for tenants and property owners.

Units sit empty while families and individuals wait for housing, paperwork piles up, and opaque processes slow the very system that was designed to deliver homes. After years of incremental changes, Housing Connect is long overdue for comprehensive reforms that ensure it works efficiently, transparently and fairly for everyone involved. 

The human cost of the system’s inefficiencies is stark.

A recent case study by the New York Housing Conference found that it took 27 months to lease 180 newly constructed affordable apartments in the Bronx — including 18 months after the lottery had closed — even after the building had a temporary certificate of occupancy and was safe for residents to inhabit.

Tens of thousands of applications were generated, yet troubling bottlenecks in eligibility review and documentation slowed every step of the process, causing would-be tenants to wait more than two years for desperately needed, high-quality new units.

This isn’t just an abstract bureaucratic quirk. It takes nearly four times longer to lease affordable housing units in New York City compared to units financed by other housing agencies statewide and across the country.

Delays caused by extended lease-up timelines reduced the financial stability of city affordable housing projects by an estimated $4.6 million between 2019 and 2024, or roughly $386,000 per impacted development. Building owners are forced to cover these unexpected gaps with additional financing or subsidies, further straining public resources and slowing future development.

The goals of improving Housing Connect are shared across city government and within the affordable housing community. But success requires coordination — not just within the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), but citywide. Clarifying responsibility and minimizing unnecessary steps between city agencies would immediately improve outcomes for renters and owners alike.

Modern problems demand modern tools. The digital infrastructure that supports Housing Connect must be upgraded, so applications can be processed quickly and intelligently. Imagine a platform in which applicants upload verification documents once and reuse them across multiple opportunities, where redundant income certifications disappear, and where unnecessary pre-lease reviews are eliminated without undermining compliance.

Automation, real-time status updates, and a centralized repository for documentation would reduce back-and-forth for families and staff and keep the process moving. Reforming the system also means rethinking how units are marketed and filled. Units should be made available to all applicant types in parallel, verification timelines should be streamlined, and applicants should be limited to one unit size per building to reduce administrative bottlenecks.

A system in which applicants can hold multiple overlapping offers creates confusion and slows occupancy. Clear consequences for unwarranted refusals and an end to open-ended appeals would incentivize accountability and speed decision-making.

We must also simplify the requirements placed on applicants. Many documentation burdens — from asset verification to digital wallet account statements — are onerous, offer little insight into actual eligibility, and discourage families from applying in the first place. 

Voucher holders and unhoused individuals deserve a process that moves at the pace of urgency, not bureaucracy. Property managers should be empowered to accept direct referrals from shelters to expedite placements.

These are practical reforms that would have an immediate impact on families in need.

Affordable housing is a shared mission, and every delay is yet one more day that an individual or family goes without a home. The New York State Association for Affordable Housing is fully committed to being a partner in this effort. We believe that with collaboration, innovation and determination, Housing Connect can finally deliver on its promise of fairness, efficiency and expedience for all New Yorkers.

Carlina Rivera is president and CEO of the New York State Association for Affordable Housing and a former member of the New York City Council from Manhattan.