STUYVESANT TOWN — The Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village affordable housing lottery opened on Tuesday, giving applicants a shot at below-market, rent-stabilized units in the housing complex.
The lottery will give as many as 15,000 applicants a spot on a waiting list for affordable apartments in the complex, according to a spokeswoman for Blackstone, the firm that purchased the twin housing complexes last year.
►See also: What Does the Stuy Town Deal Mean for Current and Future Tenants?
Prices for the affordable apartments vary widely based on unit size and household size. The cheapest option is a studio apartment for $1,210 per month for people making between $36,300 and $48,400, while the priciest is a five-bedroom apartment for $4,560 for families of five to 10 members making a total of between $136,800 and $210,870 per year.
For a full break-down of apartment prices, see the Stuy Town website.
Applications are open through March 31, at which point they will be entered into a randomized computer program that will assign a number to each application, and numbers one to 15,000 will be added to the waitlist. As new affordable units open up over time, the managers of Stuy Town will chip away at that waiting list and move applicants in based on the number assigned to them.
Stuy Town and Peter Cooper Village have 11,000 units combined.
Once the waitlist has been generated, applicants who made the cut will receive notification by mail or email with their wait-list number. The list is expected to be about two years long, and in about two years there will be a new lottery, according to a spokeswoman for Blackstone.
In a press release about the purchase deal last year, Mayor Bill de Blasio estimated that about 300 rent-stabilized apartments turn over each year.
The lottery is open to anyone who falls below the maximum household income of $250,000, with preference going to current city residents, the spokeswoman said. Earnings include salary, hourly wages, tips, Social Security, child support, and any other income for members of the household, according to a release by Blackstone.
Stuy Town residents who want to apply may do so, and if they get a spot they will be able to break their current lease in order to move into their new rent-stabilized unit.
The lottery is part of the $5.45 billion deal Blackstone made with the city last year when it agreed to protect 5,000 rent-stabilized units in the complex.
Some residents have wondered whether the deal will be enough to keep Stuy Town affordable, but the deal had the support of Susan Steinberg, president of the Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association, who praised the opening of the lottery in a statement on Tuesday.
"This is the next step in our efforts to preserve this community for middle class people, and we are happy the program is now up and running," she said in the statement.
Lottery hopefuls may apply online or by mail. For more information, see the lottery website.
