New York City Mayor Eric Adams today announced the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) will begin accepting applications for the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, reopening a waitlist that has been closed for nearly 15 years.
The Section 8 voucher is a federally-funded program administrated by NYCHA that provides rental subsidies for eligible low-income families to rent housing in the private market.
Interested households can apply to the Section 8 HCV waitlist between midnight on Monday, June 3 and through 11:59pm on Sunday, June 9, 2024, according to a news release.
“After 15 years, we are reopening NYCHA's doors to hundreds of thousands of new Section 8 applicants and helping more New Yorkers find the housing they need,” said Adams. “Addressing our city's housing crisis means using every tool our city has, and that's exactly what we are doing.
Households that receive a voucher will be able to search for housing within a neighborhood of their choice. As part of the program, qualifying households must have a gross income of 50% or below the area median income and generally pay 30% of their adjusted monthly income toward rent, with the subsidy in most cases covering the remaining portion.
Following the upcoming application period, a new waitlist is expected to be established by August 1, 2024. Once the application period has closed, a total of 200,000 applications will be randomly selected by lottery to join the waitlist, ensuring that all households have equal opportunity to be chosen regardless of when their applications were received.
Once the waitlist is established, applicants will be notified and will have the ability to check the status of their application by logging into NYCHA’s Self Service Portal.
Learn more about Section 8 eligibility at NYCHA’s website and apply to join the waitlist online on June 3 at nyc.gov/section8-application.
