Lower East Side Apartments For Seniors Cost $331 To $761

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — Affordable apartments for seniors cost as little as $331 per month at Essex Crossing's latest development.

At 140 Essex St., 84 affordable apartments for seniors hit the city's affordable housing lottery Wednesday on the Lower East Side. An additional eight units are set aside for formerly homeless seniors under the Section 8 housing program.

"It's incredibly meaningful that the first building to open as part of Essex Crossing’s second phase will provide housing exclusively for low-income seniors — an increasingly critical resource on the Lower East Side," Don Capoccia, a principal at BFC Partners, said in a statement.

Annual income requirements range from $13,303 to $51,240 for the 84 apartments under the city's housing lottery. Rents are as low as $331 for 20 apartments. Another 34 apartments will have rents set at $618, and 22 apartments at $761.

For the eight Section 8 apartments, seniors pay 30 percent of their income. The minimum income for those apartments is zero dollars.

See rents and income requirements here.

"Too many seniors struggle to find affordable housing, which is why the Mayor’s Housing New York plan prioritizes the creation of affordable homes that bolster our communities and provide stability for this city’s seniors. These 92 deeply affordable new homes for low-income seniors, including the formerly homeless, kick off the second phase of Essex Crossing, which will bring over 560 new affordable homes, as well as retail, and beautiful open space to the Lower East Side of Manhattan," the Department of Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Louise Carroll said in a statement.

Residents at 140 Essex St. will be able to access a senior center run by the Grand Street Settlement at another senior housing complex at 175 Delancey St. The building features a lounge, fitness center, outdoor terrace, bicycle storage and a laundry room.

Households with at least one person older than 62 years may qualify.

If you already live in the area, you may have a better shot at grabbing up one of these brand new, rare low-income senior apartments in the neighborhood.

Half the units are set aside for Community Board 3 residents — which covers much of the Lower East Side and East Village.

Additionally, half of those CB 3 units are set aside for tenants who used to live in the tenements buildings of what was previously called the Seward Park Extension Urban Renewal Area, or SPURA, dating back to the 1960s, when those buildings were razed. More than two dozen former tenants on the sites have moved into new apartments in the new buildings, though families have to qualify and prove they were former tenants.

Five percent of apartments are set side for mobility-disabled applicants, 2 percent for vision/hearing-disabled applicants, and 5 percent for municipal employees.

The building, located on Essex Street between Rivington and Stanton streets, is a part of the sprawling development project in the neighborhood, Essex Crossing, that has slowly been rolling out in recent months.

Earlier this year, Regal Cinemas movie theatre and the new Essex Market opened. Later this summer, an extended food marketplace dubbed the Market Line is expected to open.

At another Essex Crossing building at 180 Broome St., which reached its peak earlier this year, 121 below-market-rate units will hit the city's housing lottery.

Once completed, Essex Crossing will bring 1,079 apartments to the neighborhood, about half of which are below-market rate.

The entire project is expected to be complete by 2024.

To apply for apartments at 140 Essex St., click here. The application deadline is Aug. 20 at 11:59 p.m.

The developers of Essex Crossing, Delancey Street Associates, will host an information session June 26 from 6:30 to 6 p.m. at Grand Street Settlement's community room at 175 Delancey St.