Rent Starts At $819 At This Upper West Side Housing Lottery

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The Upper West Side has 55 brand new apartments with rents starting at $819 up for grabs as part of a local housing lottery on Housing Connect.

The apartment building, located at 635 W 59th St., near Riverside Boulevard, includes a spa with a sauna and steam room, outdoor green spaces, children's play spaces, a fitness center, a co-working space, a rock-climbing wall, a skate park, and a golf simulator, according to the Housing Connect listing.

But wait — what is Housing Connect?

For the uninitiated, New York City Housing Connect is an online platform that lists residential buildings across the five boroughs currently accepting applications for apartments, with both leasing and purchasing opportunities.

The website, which launched in 2013, aims to provide New Yorkers with opportunities for affordable prices on apartments in new developments.

However, there is a catch: Your total income and family size need to fit within a certain range to be eligible to apply to the housing lottery, and each lottery has different income restrictions, based on a measurement called Area Median Income, which you can calculate here.

The building, called Three Waterline Square, is renting 55 apartments ranging from $819 to $1,803 for people and families who make between $30,515 to $126,240 annually.

Once users apply for an eligible unit, they are issued a log number, and then the numbers are chosen at random by an automated system, lottery-style.

To see all of the apartments in the lottery or apply, click here. The deadline to apply is June 23.