Queens Borough President’s Office hosts Housing Connect webinar; HPD demos portal, eligibility and appeal process

The Office of the Queens Borough President hosted a virtual Housing Connect demonstration in which the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) walked residents through the city’s portal for affordable housing lotteries, how to apply and what to expect after applying.

HPD representative Shahin Saleh led a live demo of account registration, household profile setup, the open-lotteries search and the applicant dashboard. Saleh detailed recent documentation changes and eligibility rules: applicants with under $51,600 in assets can self-certify and do not need to submit bank statements; employed applicants generally need only one month of pay stubs rather than six; and tax returns or W-2s are no longer required except for self-employed applicants. "If you have less than $51,600, you do not have to provide bank statements," Saleh said during the demo.

Saleh also explained how the system matches households to unit types and filters by borough and neighborhood. He demonstrated that applicants must meet both the minimum and maximum income thresholds shown on each development’s advertisement to qualify, and that AMI bands set different rent and income requirements (for example, demo slides showed a 30% AMI 1-bedroom with a minimum income near $25,509 and a 50% AMI 1-bedroom with a listed…