Long-form · ~1,500 words · Beginner-friendly
NYC Housing Connect is New York City’s official affordable housing portal. It is free. It is the city’s main system for matching eligible New Yorkers to affordable rental apartments, rent-stabilized apartments, and income-restricted homeownership opportunities. Whether you are considering your first application or your fifteenth, this guide covers what Housing Connect is, how it works, and how to use it well.
What Housing Connect actually is
Housing Connect was launched by the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) in 2013. It was rebuilt as “Housing Connect 2.0” in 2020 with a more modern interface. It centralizes lotteries and re-rentals from more than one city agency:
- HPD-financed buildings.
- NYC Housing Development Corporation (HDC) buildings.
- Most Inclusionary Housing developments.
- Most 421-a, 485-x, 467-m, and similar tax-incentive affordable units.
One portal covers two-plus million users. Mitchell-Lama rentals and co-ops have a separate portal (NYC Mitchell-Lama Connect), and some Section 8 programs have their own systems.
The portal is at https://housingconnect.nyc.gov/PublicWeb/ and is the only official place to apply for an affordable housing lottery.
Step 1: Create your account
Go to the Housing Connect website. Sign up with a valid email address and a strong password. The system will ask for basic contact information, send an email verification link, and ask you to confirm before continuing.
One account per household. If you and another adult in your household each create separate accounts for the same family, you may be disqualified when marketing agents review the records. If you are the primary applicant, you should be the account holder.
Housing Connect supports 11 languages. Language selection is a menu option inside your account — use the language you are most comfortable in, including for written communication.
Step 2: Complete your household profile
This is the most important step and the one most often done incompletely. Your household profile is your application — not a separate thing you fill out when you apply to a specific lottery. When a lottery selects your log number, the marketing agent sees your profile. An incomplete profile causes disqualification.
For every household member, you will need:
- Legal name.
- Date of birth.
- Social Security number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN).
For every adult, you will need income information — from every source:
- Employment income.
- Self-employment income.
- Social Security, SSI, or SSDI.
- Pensions, annuities, unemployment benefits.
- Public assistance, disability payments.
- Alimony or child support you receive.
- Rental income or regular gifts.
- Scholarships used for expenses other than tuition.
You will also need:
- Asset information — bank accounts, investments, property you own.
- Disability status — only if you or a household member has a disability and want to be considered for disability set-asides.
- Your current landlord’s name and contact.
- Any housing voucher information (Section 8, CityFHEPS, HPD vouchers, etc.).
Step 3: Browse open lotteries
Once your profile is complete, you can browse lotteries currently accepting applications. A note worth being direct about: as of 2026, the search and filter functionality on Housing Connect does not always reliably match your profile to listings you qualify for. Listings you do not qualify for may appear in your filter results. HPD has acknowledged this limitation publicly and is working on it. For now:
- Read each listing carefully. Check the income range for your household size against the income table shown.
- Confirm the household-size rules — studios, one-bedrooms, two-bedrooms all have different requirements.
- Apply only to lotteries where you meet both the minimum and maximum income for the unit size you want.
Applying to lotteries you do not qualify for does not help you — it just consumes applications that could have been reviewed.
Step 4: Apply
Applying is a one-click process from a listing page, as long as your profile is complete. The application submits with the data already in your profile. You can apply to as many lotteries as you qualify for, and you should — lotteries are randomized, so more qualified applications increases your statistical chances.
Application windows vary. HPD’s guidebook describes them as “a few weeks to a couple of months.” HDC-financed listings are typically 45 to 60 days. Some lotteries run shorter Modified Marketing windows of about 21 days. The listing page shows the deadline.
Step 5: Opt in to re-rentals
Inside your profile, a Housing Choices section controls whether you are considered for re-rentals and re-sales — apartments that become available later when existing tenants move out. Opt in. The guidebook puts it directly: saying yes is generally a good idea. Re-rentals are how many applicants eventually land an apartment, even after many initial lotteries end without selection.
What Housing Connect does not do
A few common misunderstandings:
- Housing Connect is not a wait list. Most lotteries are lotteries — randomized — not first-come, first-served.
- Housing Connect does not match you automatically. You apply to specific lotteries.
- Housing Connect does not find you housing. It connects you to opportunities you then apply for and move through.
- Housing Connect is not Section 8, CityFHEPS, or NYCHA public housing. Those are separate programs with separate applications.
- Housing Connect is not the Mitchell-Lama program. Mitchell-Lama has its own portal.
Housing Connect is free — always
You should never pay money to use NYC Housing Connect. The city does not charge to apply. Marketing agents may run a credit or background check if you are selected for processing, but that is after the lottery, not before. Anyone who asks for an upfront payment to “expedite” your application, “guarantee” placement, or “submit” your application for you is not working for the city. See our scam-avoidance guide for details.
Typical timeline
After the application window closes:
- All applications are randomized and assigned log numbers — usually within days to a few weeks.
- The marketing agent begins contacting applicants in order, starting with set-asides (mobility disability, vision/hearing disability), then preferences (Community Board, Municipal Employee/Military Veteran), then the general pool.
- If you are contacted, you will be asked to submit documents within a defined window — typically at least 10 weekdays.
- Eligibility review and interviews can take several months.
- For popular lotteries, the marketing agent may never reach every log number. Not hearing back does not mean your application was rejected — it may mean the marketing agent filled the units before reaching your number.
Typical end-to-end timing, from application to move-in: 12 to 24 months. The reality is slower in 2025 and 2026 than it has been historically — HPD is working through backlogs and the city’s SPEED task force is actively investigating ways to speed up lease-up timelines.
Keep your profile current
If your income changes, your household changes (someone moves in or out, a child is born, a marriage happens), or your contact information changes, update your profile. Housing Connect takes a snapshot of your profile when your log number is reached, so the data at that moment needs to be accurate. Changes that contradict your application — a job change, a new household member — between the snapshot and the document review can cause rejection if they aren’t documented as Extenuating Circumstances.
Get help if you need it
NYC funds free, professional help for applicants:
- Housing Ambassadors — roughly 50 community-based organizations across the five boroughs offer free assistance with account setup, profile review, document preparation, and interview readiness.
- Ready to Rent — free one-on-one financial counseling and credit help, relaunched in January 2025.
See our guides on both for how to find the closest provider.
NYC Housing Connect is the system. Housing Ambassadors are the people. Use both — applications are much stronger when supported by an Ambassador than when completed alone.
