Gen Zer won the NYC Housing Lottery and pays $1.6K rent for Queens Apartment

• Ceronne Mitchell started applying for the lottery for affordable housing in New York City while in college.
• The rent for her one-bedroom apartment in Queens is $1,631 per month.
• Competition for lottery apartments is fierce, with an average of 450 applications for each rental unit.

Ceronne Mitchell, 26, first heard about the New York City housing lottery through her mother when she was in high school.

Even though Mitchell was still young, her mother encouraged her to apply for the program.

“I fought it a little bit because I had a sales job at a mall at the time, and I thought, ‘Mom, I have to work somewhere seriously before I can start applying for jobs,'” Mitchell told Business Insider. “And she said, ‘No, you have to apply now. By the time you get the call, you’ll be working somewhere.'”

Ultimately, she followed her mother’s advice and started applying for jobs while still in college, partly because the application process was easier than she expected.

“It’s as damn easy as swiping on a dating app. It’s a no-brainer,” Mitchell said. “If I see that I’m close to an apartment in a neighborhood that I like, with amenities that I like, then I’m just going to apply.”

It turned out that her mother was right.

Mitchell, now a social media manager, ended up getting the fifth apartment she ever applied for. The application was submitted in 2021 and she heard back two years later, Mitchell said.

Long wait, stiff competition

The NYC lotteries for affordable housing are run by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, or HPD, and the Housing Development Corporation.

To qualify for an apartment, each household must meet specific income requirements. These vary per development depending on unit size and location.

Registration for the housing lottery is free, but competition is fierce: According to the HPD, an average of 450 applications are received per rental unit.

When Mitchell received the offer for a one-bedroom lottery apartment last June, it was perfect timing.

She had been living in a studio apartment in Brooklyn for about a year and had just renewed her lease.

“They had just raised my rent and I had it locked in for the next two years,” Mitchell said. “But the price of that second-floor studio apartment would have been twenty dollars more than this one-bedroom seventh-floor lottery apartment.”

She decided to go ahead with the lottery apartment and luckily she was able to break her previous lease.

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“They said, ‘Sure. As long as you can get out of the house by August 30 (my original move-in date), we won’t hold this new lease against you,'” Mitchell said, recounting her landlord’s words.

After submitting some paperwork, including pay stubs and tax returns, for the lottery apartment, all we had to do was wait.

“I’m such a superstitious person. I was so afraid that the ink on the paper could be taken away from me,” Mitchell said. “I didn’t tell a single soul that I was going through this.”

Finally it was time for her to sign the lease and pick up her keys.

“It was just me and my mom, and I was beaming,” Mitchell said. “When I look at apartments, I always open the refrigerator, and often there’s old food and stuff in there. This time I opened the refrigerator and it was brand new.”

Turning a house into a home

It’s been a little over a year since Mitchell moved into her lottery apartment in Queens with her dog Lacey. It is in a new residential building and she is the first tenant in the unit.

Her apartment featured hardwood floors, large windows and a dishwasher.

“I have a pretty good view because I’m on the seventh floor. I can actually see the tops of all the other apartments near me,” Mitchell said. “If I turn my head out the window, I can see the top of the World Trade Center, where I work, so that’s always nice to know.”

Although her unit does not come with an in-unit washer and dryer, there are shared washers and dryers on each floor of the building, Mitchell said. There is also a gym and a common room in the building.

The nearest subway is within walking distance, as is the Long Island Rail Road.

Rent costs $1,631 per month and her lease is for two years.

Mitchell describes the interior design as “a modern Parisian apartment with light academic tones.”

Pink is the central accent color, and many of her pieces come from Facebook Marketplace or from StoopingNYC, an Instagram account that posts photos of unwanted furniture and other items left on NYC sidewalks.

“I always tell myself, there won’t be a single piece of furniture I buy here that costs more than the rent,” Mitchell said. “The rent is the most expensive here.”

As a result, she thought long and hard about how she wanted to decorate her home.

“Some people can afford to move in and buy whatever they want from Restoration Hardware in a pinch, and sometimes it takes four months to get a sofa, and that’s okay,” added Mitchell adds.

Her favorite part of the house is her living room, although she says she spends most of her time in the kitchen.

“I didn’t realize how much I would like to just stand and eat, or lean on my counter and drink my coffee. I also cook a lot, and so I’m constantly in the kitchen,” she added to.

‘Native New Yorkers deserve to stay here’

Thanks to skyrocketing housing prices, the housing lottery may be one of the only ways for many people to continue to afford living in New York.

According to a May report from Zillow, rents in New York will rise more than seven times as fast as wages by 2023.

Some lower-earning New Yorkers and even young families choosing to move to the suburbs or leave the country completely to enjoy a lower cost of living.

“As much as I’m in favor of the housing lottery, I think it sucks that as a native, sometimes this route is the only hope and dream to stay affordable in the city,” Mitchell said. “But I will say that of all the things New York offers me and its residents, this is one of the best opportunities.”

She has some advice for those interested in the housing lottery: apply, apply, apply.

‘Make it a habit. Just go to the website and apply,” Mitchell said. And even if you don’t check it daily, check it weekly when you remember – just do it.”

“Native New Yorkers deserve to stay here, and I’m always proud when they can,” she continued.

Have you recently built or renovated your dream home? If you have a story to tell, please contact me at [email protected].