Monday, March 31, 2014

Feeling lucky? 12 East Village co-ops hit the lottery


[Random photo of East 9th Street that really has nothing to do with this post]

The Cooper Square Mutual Housing Association is holding its first "affordable housing lottery" in 13 years… with lucky contestants vying for 12 below-market co-ops in the East Village.

Serena Solomon first reported on this Friday at DNAinfo. Per her article:

The winners of a housing lottery will be able to buy into the co-ops for "a few thousand dollars," and then they will only have to pay a monthly maintenance fee of less than $550, according to Val Orselli, the association’s director.

The last time the association sent out a request for applications was in 2001, and nearly 8,000 came in, Orselli said.

There are income requirements. To qualify for a studio, a person must make between $18,050 to $48,100. To qualify for a two-bedroom, a couple must make $20,600 to $55,000. (Updated via comments: Apparently only studios and 1-bedroom apartments are available.) Also, half of the units spread out in the 21 buildings that Cooper Square runs, are reserved for people who live within the boundaries of Community Board 3 — namely the East Village, Lower East Side and Chinatown.

To receive an application, you have to send a standard postcard to Cooper Square Mutual Housing Association c/o Postal, 75 East 4th St. Suite 4149, New York, N.Y., 10003.

And because someone will ask. This is straight from the Cooper Square website:

• You can not get an application online.
• You can not visit the MHA office to pickup an application.
• You can not call the MHA for an application.
• The ONLY way to get an application, is to mail a postcard as described above. You can not send a regular envelope, it has to be a postcard.

The application deadline is April 21.

6 comments:

xootrman said...

Those income requirements for a 2 bedroom are correct, however there are in fact no 2 bedrooms, only studios and 1 bedrooms.

Anonymous said...

will correctly guessing the number of jelly beans in a large glass jar be a requirement as well?

Anonymous said...

What is the income requirement for a one bedroom?

Anonymous said...

Oh, lotteries. I've been on a waiting list for a 1-bedroom in Village View for 4 or 5 years now... Have a really good number, but I recently found out that they always upgrade any interested current residents who have studios to 1 bedrooms before taking anyone off the 1-bedroom list. I'm going to be dead before they look at the lottery list again.

Anonymous said...

Anyone interested in a NATIONAL affordable housing rights group?
http://evictionfreesf.org/

We all need unite like AARP, AIPAC etc
We are under country-wide siege and a commensurate response is required

DuchessofNYC said...

Why isn't the lottery 100 percent for Community Board 3? Or one could include former residents displaced from Community Board 3.... but why broaden it to people outside the community?