This past summer, New York City’s Housing Preservation and Development department updated the application process for affordable housing lotteries, so it would be easier for New Yorkers looking for new homes. What this means for you is that now your chances of finding affordable housing are much higher! Last week, IMPACCT Brooklyn walked you through changes to the application process, tenant selection, and rejection & appeal process. Now, we’ll wrap things up with updates to calculating income.
CHANGES TO INCOME
- Once upon a time, your pay stub income was partly based on six full, consecutive pay stubs. Now, your pay stub income is based on just four to six of your most recent consecutive pay stubs.
- If your pay rate has increased or decreased over the course of the pay stubs provided (we hope it’s increased!), the marketing agent must use the amount that reflects the applicant’s current circumstances, rather than an average.
- Is the unit you’re applying to part of an IRS program? If you said “no,” than you don’t need your employer to verify employment. You just need tax returns and pay stubs.
- If you’re self-employed, good news! The two-year historical “time test” will no longer be used to judge income from self-employment. Now, applicants must provide tax returns for the past two years. If you haven’t been self-employed that long, you’ll need to provide tax returns for the full duration of self-employment. Applicants with more than two years of self-employment experience don’t need to submit backup documentation of an accountant’s income projection, either. However, applicants without two full years of self-employment history must provide documentation to support their historical and projected income. In either case, the higher of estimated historical and projected incomes will be used to evaluate and determine an applicant’s eligibility towards affordable housing.
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- How many jobs do you have? Do you work full-time, or freelance? Do you have more than one source of income? For applicants who rely on “combination income,” or a variety of income sources (such as temporary jobs, seasonal jobs, full-time employment, unemployment, self-employment, etc.), marketing agents are expected to use the same approach as when calculating self-employment income.
- This one is a little tricky, so bear with us: any income from your current residence is not counted in your income calculation if the source of that income isn’t permitted in the affordable unit. For example, if you’re using space in your current residence for rental or to sublet, marketing agents wouldn’t be able to count that towards your projected income, because subletting is against the rules in an affordable unit. Got it?
- Finally, court-ordered child support now requires official documentation.
Ready to take the next steps in applying for affordable housing? Be sure to attend IMPACCT Brooklyn’s upcoming Affordable Apartment Lottery seminar! Space is limited, so be sure to sign up quickly!
Still got questions? IMPACCT Brooklyn is an HPD Housing Ambassador and is here to answer those questions for you! Just email us at affordablehousing@impacctbk.org and set up an appointment.
