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Q&A
Consideration of moving from lottery system to universal waiting list for affordable housing
1:23:04
·
3 min
Council Member Sanchez raises the question of potentially moving from a lottery system to a universal waiting list for affordable housing developments. Commissioner Tigani explains the rationale behind the current lottery system and its advantages over a waiting list.
- Lottery system potentially offers faster access to housing compared to a long waiting list
- Lotteries provide a fair chance for all applicants, regardless of when they apply
- Waiting lists can become stale and may inadvertently remove eligible applicants
- HPD employs waiting lists in certain situations, particularly for re-rentals
- The department remains open to discussions about improving the system and exploring alternatives
Pierina Ana Sanchez
1:23:04
Thank you so much, commissioner.
1:23:06
Okay.
1:23:06
Last last question, and I wanna end on I wanna end on on this bigger picture question.
1:23:13
Over the years, I've heard a lot of advocacy or or just thinking that, we should actually consider as a city moving from a lottery system to a universal waiting list for these, affordable housing developments.
1:23:26
There's a lot of issues that have been flagged in equity of access.
1:23:29
We've talked about the digital divide.
1:23:32
There's the perception of unfairness or randomness because, you know, it's it feels like a it is a crapshoot in in many ways, whether you're gonna you're going to be selected.
1:23:43
And there's there's even you know, I I can't tell you the number of conversations that I've had in my own community about, nah, man.
1:23:50
It's rigged.
1:23:51
This is just this they put their own people in and, you know, we we have had these conversations, I try to explain to them the process.
1:23:58
But, you know, there's all these different reasons why, you know, there there are certain advocates that have pushed for a waiting list versus a lottery approach.
1:24:07
So can you can you share just what the thinking is?
1:24:11
How why do we, as a city, conduct housing lotteries versus having a wait list like NYCHA?
Ahmed Tigani
1:24:17
Yeah.
1:24:17
I I think there there's a lot there, but the if if one of the outcomes is to get someone into housing more quickly and given how extensive the need and how long the the list would be for waiting list for affordable housing.
1:24:36
It is in fact numerically more likely that being part of a lottery rather than waiting at the very long line of a waiting list will put you in a chance to have an op have access to a housing faster.
1:24:53
You every lottery regardless of when you come on whether it's, you know, a couple years ago or the day that you apply, there is an opportunity based on your, you know, eligibility, etcetera, that you can be into housing.
1:25:06
We have people who have applied for lottery and then several months later they're able to get in the housing.
1:25:11
We do unfortunately also have people who have applied for lottery and then they have waited a long time for their opportunity.
1:25:19
We've seen with other wait lists that there have been people on wait list for a very long time and they have not had the opportunity or even a chance at being able to move that position any further.
1:25:31
Additionally, some of the feedback that we've gotten on our re rental program, for instance, is that waiting lists can go stale.
1:25:38
And if you don't have a a way of keeping that fresh, it could be very difficult.
1:25:45
However, the strategies to keeping that fresh can also sometimes inadvertently remove people who did not want to be removed.
1:25:52
And so you run the risk of doing that as well.
1:25:55
The the lottery program, and it's something that, you know, we talk to cities all the time.
1:25:59
We who are looking and actually replicating the system that we have.
1:26:04
The lottery process allows individuals at any given moment to tell us at a point of time that they're ready for housing, that this is what they need, and that we give each individual a fair shot wherever they live in the city to have access to housing wherever it is in the city.
1:26:19
We do employ a waiting list in certain situations.
1:26:22
It's a tool that we have available, but we think it's more appropriate in the re rentals universe than it may be in the initial.
1:26:31
That being said, we are open to having all of these discussions about thinking about what tools work.
1:26:37
We've heard some of this feedback as well and we're trying to study some, you know, people who have better mass understanding than I are thinking about how do we put people in the best position to succeed.
Eric Urquiza
1:26:48
Great.