Nkenge Brown first heard about the New York City housing lottery system four years ago while she was at work.
“Someone told me that they won a lottery apartment, and I was like, ‘What’s that?'” Brown, 30, told Business Insider. Back then, Brown was working in the tech industry and lived at home with her mother in Upper Manhattan.
“Once they told me about it, I ended up going online to search the website, but I didn’t really pay too much attention to it at the beginning,” Brown said.
Fast-forward two years, and Brown was ready to move out and live on her own.
“That’s when I started to apply. But, of course, with these things, I know they take time, so I was hoping for the best,” Brown said.
It would take her another two years and over 130 applications before she finally succeeded in her bid for an apartment, she said.
It couldn’t have come at a better time. Brown had just quit her job to become a freelance photographer and content creator. She was also living in a different apartment after moving out of her mom’s house, and her rent was getting too expensive.
Rent was about $1,940, and if she had stayed for another year, it would have been over $2,000, she said.
“This place literally came just in time, like a few months before my second-year lease ended,” Brown said.
A long, drawn-out process
The affordable housing lotteries are run by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, or HPD, and the Housing Development Corporation.
Both rental units and homeownership units are available, and application is free.
To qualify for a lottery apartment, each household must meet specific income and size requirements, and these vary across the developments depending on unit size and location.
Since 2013, there have been more than 25 million applications submitted for about 40,000 units, The New York Times reported. In 2018, the odds of winning the housing lottery were 1 in 592, per the Times. The HPD did not respond to a request for comment from BI.
Applying for the housing lottery was a long process that required a lot of patience and paperwork, and Brown ran into a few hiccups along the way.
“It took me maybe over a year before I started hearing back from different properties that I applied to,” Brown said. “Some of them I ended up not qualifying for, some of them I didn’t provide enough documentation for.”
Some of the paperwork included pay stubs, tax returns, as well as receipts for rent and recent gas or electric bills from where she had been living before.
Even after getting the news that she qualified for an apartment, it took another three months before she was able to move in at the start of May last year.
“I started submitting documents at the beginning of February and getting things rolling in terms of being accepted by the place,” Brown said.
Brown’s one-bedroom apartment is located in Chelsea, a neighborhood on the west side of Manhattan, and her rent is stabilized. It’s a two-year lease with an option for renewal.
Her apartment costs $1,081 a month, but since she gets a utility allowance of $85, she ends up paying $996 for rent, as well as an additional $54 monthly for amenity fees.
The median monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Chelsea is $5,232, per the latest April data from RentCafe.com.
“The day I moved in, I was super excited. I felt blessed,” Brown said. “It was like things were coming together, with the opportunity for me to take my business to the next level in a way where I don’t feel stressed out about bills and all the things that adulting has to offer.”
Her apartment came with some standard appliances, including a washer and dryer, a dishwasher, and a refrigerator, although she says that’s not always the case.
“There are a wide range of apartments that offer different things, so it’s just up to you as the applicant to apply for the ones that you want or that you’re open to,” Brown said.
Although the housing lottery website has a list of amenities displayed for each apartment block, it doesn’t specify which appliances each apartment within the block has, she added.
“For example, in this building that I’m in, there are quite a few apartments available,” Brown said. “So one of them may not have a washer and dryer, whereas another one. But they don’t tell you in detail which of these apartments they are.”
Additionally, potential tenants have to submit all their documents even before they can view the apartment in person, she said.
“So there is a chance that you may not even want the place, but you still have to submit your documents first,” she said.
A space of one’s own
Brown’s home is a reflection of her personality and all the things she loves: bright colors, eclectic furniture, and over 40 houseplants.
“Plants have a way of really transforming your space,” Brown said. “I mean not only in terms of health benefits, with oxygen and everything, but also in nurturing your plant and taking care of them.”
She brought most of her furniture and decor over from her old apartment and succeeded in turning her new space into the cozy, airy home she had always envisioned.
Aesthetics aside, most of her furniture pieces double as storage space, she said.
“I have a lot of things, so I always try to find ways to hide them away but at the same time, make the space look comfortable,” Brown said. “For example, I have a couple of Ottomans that have storage — you just open up the top. The ottomans themselves look very cute, and you can sit on them. They don’t take up too much space.”
It’s hard to pick a favorite spot in the home, but if she had to choose, it’ll be the corner by her southeast-facing window.
The pink and yellow curtains, together with her plants and a little seated area by the window, remind her of a café.
“I’m really inspired by cafés, especially the ones in Paris. And I know a lot of those would have the chairs facing outward, and I really liked that. So if anything, I was just bringing that into my home as well,” Brown said.
“This is my little corner where I can drink some tea or read a book and just enjoy the sun coming in, because the sun does rise in this area,” Brown added.
Brown has one suggestion for those who are interested in applying for the housing lottery.
“I actually encourage people to apply to as many as they want because I would say you have a higher chance of succeeding,” Brown said.
She added that she also signed up for email alerts, so she’d be notified whenever new properties get listed on the portal.
Being able to have an affordable apartment in the heart of the city is like a dream come true, Brown said.
“I mean to call this space my own. I’ve also felt inspired. There’s always so much going on in the city and it’s nice to be able to have access to all of these areas while living here,” she added. “I’m just very, very grateful.”