Getting ready to apply for affordable housing takes time, and it involves more than just filling out paperwork. Each building has different income qualifications and required materials, which can make putting together a strong application confusing. What exactly is affordable housing, and what does it take to qualify to live in it? How much money should you save and what kind of credit do you need to have?
The New York City Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) and the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE) approached CUP to help create Ready, Set, Apply!, a guide to applying for affordable housing subsidized by HPD and the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC). This guide lays out each step of the application process, how to organize a strong application for an affordable housing unit, and provides referrals to other resources that can support your application.
Financial empowerment and preparedness is a key part of preparing an affordable housing application. In addition to explaining how to apply for affordable housing, Ready, Set, Apply! provides concrete steps that low- to moderate-income people can take to strengthen their financial profile before even starting their applications.
Download your copy of the booklet here.
Spanish translation of this project is available here.
CUP has since partnered with HPD to translate the guide into sixteen additional languages, Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified), French, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Italian, Korean, Polish, Punjabi, Russian, Urdu, Yiddish, and Yoruba. You can download all the translations here.