New Yorkers Displaced by Sandy to Get Preference on Housing Lottery

A model of the Coney Island Commons affordable housing development, which will feature a pool, gymnasium, fitness room, and a youth program ran by the YMCA. The Brooklyn development is slated to complete this summer and is the first project to be affected by a 25 percent lottery preference for income-eligible New Yorkers displaced by hurricane Sandy. (Courtesy of Kretchmer Companies)

 

NEW YORK—New Yorkers displaced by Hurricane Sandy will receive a 25 percent preference in the affordable housing lotteries overseen by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). As with other HPD lotteries, applicants have to meet income requirements. One of the first developments affected by the preference is Brooklyn’s Coney Island Commons, a $79.5 million project developed by Kretchmer Companies and partners.

“It’s an imperative to provide relief to those most in need,” HPD Commissioner Mathew Wambua stated in a press release. “Every effort we make to connect those displaced by Sandy to interim or permanent housing is another step in regaining stability and moving the recovery process forward.”

Subsidized apartments in New York City must be rented through an open lottery system “to ensure fair and equitable distribution of housing to eligible applicants,” the press release states.