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Housing lottery receives 6 million applications for just 10,000 units, leaving many behind
Housing lottery receives 6 million applications for just 10,000 units, leaving many behind

May. 13, 2025 By Shane O’Brien

New York City’s housing crisis is no secret and the city’s low-cost housing landscape remains extremely difficult to navigate, including a housing lottery system theoretically devised to provide a solution for the dire need for accommodation.

A problem that has been brewing for decades, the housing crisis continues to get worse, with vacancy rates dropping to 1.4% citywide and under 1% for units priced $2,400 or lower, according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD).

Meanwhile, rents continue to climb, with a 2024 report from New York City Comptroller Brad Lander finding that the median asking rent for available apartments across NYC was $3,500 a month. A household would have to earn $140,000 per year in order to afford such a unit based on the nationwide standard, suggesting that households should spend no more than one-third of their income on housing.

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NY Hall of Science debuts CityWorks, its largest exhibition in over a decade

The New York Hall of Science in Corona opened its largest interactive exhibition in more than a decade on Saturday, May 3. The exhibition explores the often invisible inner workings of the built urban environment.

CityWorks is housed in a 6,000 square foot gallery, and the exhibit was created by a team of NYCSI exhibit developers, researchers, and educators over the past five years. Visitors will have the opportunity to explore the intricate systems and engineering that enable cities to function, including how they break, evolve, and endure.

Twenty people indicted in Queens-based $4.6M vehicle theft ring after three-year probe: DA

Twenty individuals were indicted and variously charged in a wide-ranging scheme to steal cars in Queens, throughout New York City and its suburbs, following a three-year investigation by the Queens District Attorney’s Office, the NYPD, and the New York State Police dubbed “Operation Hellcat,” into the criminal enterprise based in Queens.

Some of the vehicles were stolen from owners’ driveways, some with the keys or key fobs inside. The stolen vehicles were often sold through advertisements on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. The defendants are charged in nine separate indictments for a total of 373 counts, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced on Thursday.