Sending a letter for nyc housing connect

#Sending a letter for nyc housing connect full#
#Sending a letter for nyc housing connect series#
#Sending a letter for nyc housing connect free#

The city affordable housing office cannot make copies of your documents for you. And it's true what they tell you: you mustВ bring copies. We brought originals and copies of all required documents. In fact, we were fast-tracked through the process. It was daunting, but we had been carefully saving all the correct documentation for the past several years for just this occasion! The correspondence said we were Log #85, which made Lisa think we had no chance, since there were only 52 affordable apartments in the building. In mid-May of the same year, we received an email followed up by a letter in the mail alerting us that we needed to schedule an interview for what we knew at that time only as вЂњWestВ 60thВ Street Apartments.вЂќ I called to schedule an interview. We were wait-listed for Stuyvesant Town in April 2016. We kept entering lotteries, every single one we were qualified for.

#Sending a letter for nyc housing connect full#

(Brick's full guide to finding a lottery apartment is here.) Always in the Amsterdam News, and then two other papers, which are often (but not always) amNewYorkВ and Metro. Lisa found out that all lotteries have to be advertised in three NYC newspapers. We did some investigation about where else housing lottery apartments were advertised. It kind of stood out to me that we found a housing opportunity IВ didnвЂ™t see on Housing Connect or elsewhere. I immediately printed out the application, filled it out and ran to the post office to mail it. One day we were in our home office, sitting across from each other, whenВ Lisa said, вЂњHave you seen this one on WestВ 60thВ Street? I just saw it go up on Time OutвЂ™s website.вЂќ We must have applied for more than four dozen places on Housing Connect, another two dozen on existing waiting lists, and a few random apartments thatВ we saw here and there. We both hit our 50s and the walk up to our fourth-floor apartment inВ BushwickВ was wearing on us.В We hoped that we would win an apartment in an elevator building by the time we turned 60. We qualified for most of them-our combined income was 50 percent of the area median income ($55,775 in 2015). The offerings on Housing Connect gradually became more and more attractive and alsoВ more plentiful. I went through list after list, made dozens of calls, filled out dozens moreВ applications, and sent in dozens more self-addressed stamped envelopes. We also put our names on waiting lists for old and renovated rent-stabilized buildings. The lottery went online at a site called NYC Housing ConnectВ and we signed up, andВ kept our eye out for other notices of lottery applications opening. I never understood what that deal was all about and Lisa withdrew her application, so we never found out. They were offering a studio apartment that would be rented at an affordable price for five years then go market-rate. Less than a year later, she was called for an interview for a brand-new building on Union Square South. We had to let go of the idea of living onВ 42ndВ Street. After all the interviewing and figuring of her income, it turned out she could only prove two years of majority artist income. She is aВ writer and actor and, like most other artists, she needsВ to work day jobs to stay afloat. She needed to prove she made at least 51 percent of her income working as an artist.

Lisa was eventually called for an interview at Manhattan Plaza in Hell's Kitchen. This was back when you had to call to find out where and when there were openings, and then send in a self-addressed postcard. It was the first in a string of applications. My girlfriend,В Lisa, applied for the lottery at those artistsвЂ™ residences onВ 42ndВ Street between NinthВ andВ 10thВ soon after she moved to New York in the mid-'90s. We had been entering the affordable housing lottery for a total of almost 25 years. The envelopes and postcards offered that day will be pre-cancelled so participants will have the special Hudson, NY insignia on their correspondence.Well, we actually did win the lottery, my girlfriend and I. Tables will be located on the East Lawn, weather permitting, or in the CoachmanвЂ™s House if there is rain. Hufnagel will also encourage people to sit and write a note on Saturday, August 23 at Olana from 1 to 4 p.m. Commemorative cancellations increase the value of stamps.

The Hudson post office also has a special commemorative cancellation stamp for these letters.

#Sending a letter for nyc housing connect free#

Stop by and write a free postcard or special letter to anyone of your choice, and Hufnagel will give you a free Hudson River School stamp. to encourage the art of letter-writing and celebrate the introduction of the new stamps. Amy Hufnagel, OlanaвЂ™s new director of education, will be at the Hudson City Post Office from 9 a.m.

#Sending a letter for nyc housing connect series#

The US Post Office will release a new series of Forever StampsВ on Thursday, August 21 that commemorates paintings of the Hudson River School.