3,000 Names Are Being Drawn for Spots on the Waiting List
The Municipal Housing Authority for the City of Yonkers (MHACY) held a lottery today for 3,000 Yonkers residents who qualify for affordable housing. For the first time in more than 10 years, MHACY has opened its waiting list for Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8) for affordable housing.
MHACY is seeking to add 3,000 people to its waiting list for vouchers. The vouchers are provided through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and subsidizes rental units in market rate buildings for income-qualifying tenants. MHACY has received more than 14,500 applications.
Residents had a little more than two weeks, from June 27 to July 13 to apply for the list. The lottery is being held on August 2 and 3 at the Yonkers Riverfront Library to draw the names of those who will be eligible to receive vouchers as they become available.
“Opening the MHACY waiting list has been 10 years in the making. We are not surprised by the number of people who have applied for housing and are excited to be able to make quality affordable housing available. It is a basic need,’’ said Wilson Kimball, President and CEO of MHACY. “Our partnership with Mayor Spano and the City of Yonkers on several affordable housing issues helped us reach this day. And nothing would have been possible without the support of the Board of Commissioners of MHACY.’’
Mayor Mike Spano, who was on hand for the lottery drawing on August 2, said, “Housing is key to the vitality of any city. In addition to the thousands of units of new market rate housing that are going up, we have renovated MHACY housing and are now making more affordable housing available through the use of these vouchers in partnership with building owners.’’
Chairman of the MHACY Board of Commissioners James Landy added, “Opening our waiting list is momentous as it allows people needing rental assistance the chance to find affordable decent housing that has become out of reach for so many. We are very proud to afford Yonkers residents this opportunity.”
The lottery drawing will be public and monitored by auditors to assure fairness in the selection process. It will be livestreamed on the MHACY Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/mhacyonkers.
