26-year-old won the NYC housing lottery, pays $881/month for a 1-bedroom apartment: How the process works

Nahjae Olin was born and raised in the Bronx, New York City. She and five of her siblings grew up in a one-bedroom apartment just one block away from the place she now calls home.

In 2019, the 26-year-old preschool teacher had just moved back in with her family after graduating from college. By the end of that year, Olin tells CNBC Make It she had started planning to find her own apartment.

“I was back from school in 2019, and towards the end of the year, I was going through a rough time with my mom and knew I needed to move out,” Olin tells CNBC Make It.

After searching online for apartments and seeing how expensive it would be to live alone or even with a roommate, she decided to apply to the city’s housing lottery. She submitted her first of many applications in 2020. By the time she finally heard back in 2022, she had submitted over 100 applications.

The New York City housing lottery program helps residents find affordable housing, including rent-stabilized apartments. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development defines affordable housing as housing costs no greater than 30 percent of a single person’s or family’s income. 

“Housing lottery is the way that the city of New York makes affordable apartments that we finance and we regulate available to income-qualified New Yorkers,” Emily Osgood, associate commissioner of housing opportunity and placement services, tells CNBC Make It. “There are so many more people that need housing than we have apartments, so the fairest way to give people a chance is through a lottery process.”

Per the city’s rent stabilization system, there is a legal limit to how much rent one can be charged in a year. NYC’s Rent Guidelines Board determines the rate at which rent in a rent-stabilized apartment can increase lease-to-lease.

“It’s important to know that the way New York City funds affordable housing, it can be affordable to people at different income levels,” Osgood says.

The income requirement is determined by the area’s median income (AMI), unit size, household size, and annual household income.

The average ratio for HPD’s housing lottery is 50 applications for each available unit.

“It may not happen the first time, but you’ve got to stick with it. It’s not an overnight sensation. The timeline is probably going to be long, but hang in there,” Osgood says.

Osgood also says it’s important to remember that after the lotteries close, paper applications are added to the system, and everything is randomized and sorted into batches. Each applicant is assigned a log number, which can be viewed in their Housing Connect profile.

“The lower the log number, the better. The closer you are to coming up soon in one of those batches,” she says.

To speed up the process, Osgood also suggests keeping the Housing Connect profile up to date and having certain documents on hand, such as pay stubs and copies of I.D.s for everyone in the household.

When thinking about moving out on her own, Olin tells CNBC Make It she knew she wanted to stay in the Bronx because it’s where her whole life is.

Over the years, Olin heard back from several housing lottery properties in Brooklyn but kept holding out hope for an apartment in her home borough.

Her persistence paid off in 2022 when she got an email advising that she’d been added to the waitlist for a one-bedroom apartment in a building in the Williamsbridge neighborhood of the Bronx.

Olin assumed she’d land in a studio “because I thought there was no way I could afford a one-bedroom apartment on my own,” she says. “As soon as I went to view it, I fell in love with it and wanted it. I could see myself living there and was absolutely obsessed.”

In May 2023, Olin signed a two-year lease on a one-bedroom apartment for $881 a month. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the Bronx is $2,230, according to Apartment’s List.

Olin’s building offers access to amenities like a laundry room, gym, and free Wi-Fi.

To qualify for this lottery, Olin’s yearly income had to be between $33,086 and $46,700, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. When she was selected, Olin had to submit proof of income, which included bank statements, invoices, and tax forms.

Olin says getting her keys and moving in is a moment she’ll never forget. “It felt like a full circle moment. To live down the block from the apartment I grew up in is great.”

She plays hostess to her siblings and her mom who cried the first time she saw the apartment and told Olin how proud she was.

“My family never wants to leave now. My mom gets to see that I’m not struggling or scraping by to pay for my rent like so many people,” Olin says. “She knew how stressful it was for me to move out and find somewhere to live at my age and with my income. It just felt impossible, and she was super proud, and it made me even more proud of myself.”

Olin has been living in her apartment for over a year and doesn’t plan to move out anytime soon.

“It’s so hard to see myself leaving…I feel like it’s mine right now, and I’m not at a place where I want to leave just yet, but I do know that if I never do, I will be so sad,” Olin says. “It feels like this was my first big girl responsibility and something I had to do for the first time by myself.”

For those looking to follow in Olin’s footsteps, it’s important to know that you don’t need to be a New York City resident to participate in the New York City housing lottery. Still, Osgood says those who already live in NYC are contacted first, no matter the log number.

You also don’t have to be a U.S. citizen or have a particular immigration status to quality, Osgood added.

“But if everyone in your household isn’t able to show documentation of income or provide any information about your rent history, you’ll get to a point in the process where it’s just hard to prove that you, in fact, qualify,” she says. “It can be challenging, but there’s no prohibition if you’re able to show that you’re eligible; we want you housed and want you to have that opportunity.”

Nkenge, who was born in the Bronx but raised in Harlem, also started her housing lottery journey in 2020. When she was selected for a one-bedroom apartment in 2023, she had submitted over 120 applications.

Nkenge, who requested to only be identified by her first name for privacy concerns, tells CNBC Make It she started applying to the lottery because she was paying around $1,900 for a small one-bedroom apartment in Harlem, but wanted to reduce her rent costs to around $1,000 a month.

“I really want to save for a place, something that I can call my own and actually own,” Nkenge says. “I had a budget and I wanted to stick to that. That’s when the lottery ended up coming in right at the nick of time.”

Nkenge’s yearly income had to be between $36,798 and $59,340 to qualify for the lottery. While waiting for final approvals, Nkenge was shown three apartments — two in Brooklyn and one in Manhattan.

“I first walked into those apartments; they were definitely out of this world. They felt like a hotel,” Nkenge says. “I was greeted by a concierge and it just felt so elevated.”

Nkenge chose a one-bedroom apartment in the building in Manhattan. Her unit comes with a washer and dryer and the building has shared amenities that include a gym, game room, and rooftop.

The market rate for one-bedroom apartments in Nkenge’s building starts at $5,903 a month, according to StreetEasy.

“Living in an affordable home has not only made my life easier and less stressful, but it has also allowed me to have more access to things,” Nkenge said. “It has allowed me to save not only for owning a home but also even retirement, life insurance. That’s never something that I’ve had in the past, but now I’m able to afford that as well.”

Nkenge’s two-year lease guarantees her a rent of $997 a month, which includes a $85 utility allowance.

If she renews her lease in May 2025, Nkenge’s rent will increase by 5%, the current increase percentage rate allowed for rent-stabilized units in New York City.

An estimated 27,261,057 NYC residents applied for the city’s housing lottery between 1/1/2014 and 6/30/2020, according to the Department of HPD’s NYC Local Law 217 of 2019 report.

Nkenge believes even more people should have access to the program, especially people who look like her.

“A lot of the times when you’re not given the opportunity to be in certain spaces, it’s kind of hard to get in there to begin with. It’s about who you know, which,” she says. “Unfortunately, I come from a space where I didn’t really know a lot of people.”

Nkenge has been living in her apartment for a year and is taking advantage of her low rent by saving to buy a home, which she hopes to do in the next five years.

“You’re able to enjoy life better, have a better quality of life and are able to do the things that you love and accomplish the things that you want to accomplish,” she says.

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