Credit Check No Longer Needed For NYC's Affordable Housing Lotto

NEW YORK — No credit, no problem. Renters no longer have to submit a credit check to enter the New York City housing market's equivalent of the Powerball drawing, city officials said Wednesday.

New Yorkers can now provide proof that they have paid rent when applying for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development's affordable housing lottery instead of a credit check, which can be a hurdle for low-income and immigrant renters, officials said.

"For too long, families without access to credit have faced barriers to the affordable housing they need," Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, said in a statement. "By allowing New Yorkers to submit rental history instead of credit checks, we are creating a fairer system for all New Yorkers."

The city's NYC Housing Connect lotteries allow New Yorkers to enter drawings for available apartments in affordable housing developments.

In addition to income requirements based on the size of the home and the household, applicants generally had to submit to a credit check and provide a Social Security or taxpayer identification number.

The city has now changed its application so New Yorkers can submit 12 months of rent payment history instead of a credit check, reducing the chances that applicants will be denied housing for having poor credit, officials say.

Applicants who choose to get a credit check will not have to pay more than $20 for it in accordance with new state rent laws, according to the mayor's office. They can also provide their own credit check to a landlord to avoid fees altogether, officials said.

The changes will also allow New Yorkers to apply for housing without providing Social Security or taxpayer identification numbers for every adult in the household, according to the mayor's office.

City officials say the shifts will improve access to coveted affordable apartments for poor and immigrant New Yorkers burdened by the previous requirements.

"By eliminating requirements that unnecessarily and disproportionately impact working class immigrant families and people of color, HPD continues to show our City’s commitment to racial and immigrant justice," Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Bitta Mostofi said in a statement.

But it will likely remain difficult to win a housing lottery despite the changes. The odds of snagging an apartment through a drawing last year was 1 in 592, compared with 1 in 80 in 2012, The New York Times reported in January.