New York City’s housing lottery is not unlike the actual lottery: The payoff is potentially life-changing, but your odds of winning are slim to none. Just one out of every 593 applications is approved. Still, millions of people apply every year even though the process is about as complicated as buying a house. You just have to submit a dozen documents including W-2s, proof of rent payments, pay stubs, bank statements, and so on. And then you wait. And wait some more. A new report by the nonprofit Citizens Housing and Planning Council shows just how long this all really takes: An average of 371 days pass before all lottery units in a new development are rented out. That means new affordable apartments are left sitting empty for more than a year. What’s going on?

Rhetorically, the positions staked out by various groups pushing to expand affordable housing sound very similar.

More CHPC in the media

Basement Conversion Plan Excludes Critical Neighborhoods

"Calling this a 'pilot' was the fig leaf that allowed them to play politics with boundaries," said Slatkin. "What we see instead is some version of political boundary salad that the state legislature has put out."
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Key Feature of NYCHA PACT: Ability to Replace Property Management

"One of the features of PACT is that there's a responsiveness that's possible in property management because an underperforming property manager can be replaced," Slatkin said. "The ultimate clients in PACT are the NYCHA residents, and at the end of day the results have to be improved conditions for NYCHA tenants."
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City of Yes reforms could reduce housing market pressure

"There is no single silver bullet for the housing crisis," Slatkin told Crain's. "Many steps are needed to give us a functioning housing system, including tax incentives to make new privately financed housing work, expanded resources to support housing for people at the lowest incomes, and efforts to limit the escalation of construction and operating costs."
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