The new year brings with it a familiar challenge: How to get an affordable Westchester County apartment.
The expensive commuter-belt county — where market-rate house-sale prices hit highs in 2024 and high-end apartment buildings have sprouted — has also seen more affordable housing built in recent years, with more on the way.
Here’s a look at where to seek and apply for affordable housing, current availability, and a preview of additional apartments under construction projected to open in perhaps a year or so.
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How to apply for the Westchester affordable housing lottery
People can apply for affordable homes, rentals or ownership, through the county’s housing lottery.
The lottery is open to applicants from nine counties, including Westchester, Putnam and Rockland, Connecticut’s Fairfield, and New York City’s five boroughs.
Affordable housing is set at rents or purchase prices geared to various percentages of Westchester County median income, such as 60%. Some apartments are open to all adult age groups, others limited to older residents. Applicants who are contacted when units are available are then reviewed to be sure information such as meeting the income guideline and ability to afford the rent check out.
Get the housing search started by keeping an eye on three things:
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The county’s Homeseeker website is a place to register to receive information on apartment or other home availabilities, waitlists and buildings opening in the near future, said Blanca Lopez, the Westchester County planning commissioner.
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Westchester Residential Opportunities is a nonprofit the county works with to market affordable housing and has a list of affordable housing and whether units are available or for wait list. The nonprofit works with developers to put together plans to get out the word about new housing. It is one of the agencies that people can contact to for the housing lottery, Lopez said.
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Housing Action Council is a nonprofit that provides technical assistance to community organizations and inexperienced and small developers to develop affordable housing, the council’s website said. It markets affordable housing that may or may not have county involvement.
Those sites list buildings that are, or contain some, affordable housing and the application deadlines.
Application deadlines coming for housing in Chappaqua, Somers
A look at the websites found that most current buildings had wait-list availability only — people can apply to be on wait lists.
But Housing Action Council’s site lists the Apartments at Hidden Meadow and the Townhomes at Hidden Meadows, both in Somers, with a Jan. 27 application deadline.
Westchester Residential Opportunities lists two condominium units for sale, at 300 King St. in Chappaqua, as available by housing lottery. Jan. 10 at 4 p.m. is listed as the application deadline.
The exterior of 360 Huguenot Street in New Rochelle, photographed April 5, 2023.
New, one-stop shopping Homeseeker website expected soon
In 2025’s first quarter, launch of an upgraded Homeseeker site is expected to provide one-stop shopping to not only get information about affordable homes, but apply for them, Lopez said.
“What we are planning on doing with the upgrade to Homeseeker is allowing people to provide all of this information and apply for the lottery and participate in the lottery online,” Lopez said, adding: “So we want to make it easier for everybody to know what is going on with respect to affordable housing opportunities in the county.”
Meanwhile, more apartment buildings under construction will come up for housing lotteries, Lopez said:
Early stage construction is seen at The St. Clair, a new residential building under construction at Main Street and Riverdale Avenue in Yonkers, photographed May 7, 2024.
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Westchester County allocates money toward 108 new affordable homes
Plans to build more affordable housing are also afoot.
On Jan. 7, Westchester County Executive Kenneth W. Jenkins announced a $10 million allocation as part of efforts to build downtown White Plains affordable housing. The property includes two buildings, at 99 Church St. and 6 Cottage Place, and plans are to build 108 affordable homes for first-time homebuyers, a news release said.
“We are continuing on our path to create as many affordable housing opportunities as possible for Westchester County’s residents,” Jenkins said. “Every member of our community should have the right to make a home here, and housing needs to be available at a price point that all people can afford.”
Affordable housing has long been an issue. In 2009, Westchester entered into an affordable housing settlement with the federal government. Part of it meant the county had to build 750 units in 31 of its wealthiest and last diverse localities, where comparatively few affordable developments were.
Patterns for Progress, a nonprofit group, found in a 2019 assessment that more than 11,700 new housing units would need to be built to meet Westchester affordable-housing demand. The Journal News/lohud.com reported the figure represented the Westchester homeless and households that are seriously overcrowded, and people outside the area who were registered as seeking housing through Homeseeker. A 2024 Patterns for Progress report said “latest data show that even the core of our middle class in the Hudson Valley is now struggling to find an affordable place to live.”
Westchester County budget funds aim to support housing
Westchester’s capital budget includes two funds to develop and support affordable housing.
Through one of the funds, the county works “with developers in assisting them in acquiring the land or the property in order for the development to become affordable housing units, whether rental, whether home ownership,” said Lopez.
The other directs money to a village, town or city where affordable housing is being built, for things such as traffic studies, landscaping, sidewalks, and things related to sewer and electrical connections.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Westchester affordable apartments: Where to get started, what to know