Most lotteries for our affordable housing programs are now run electronically and are open to the public.
1. Running the lottery
Visit the DAHLIA San Francisco Housing Portal for electronic lotteries.
All the lottery numbers are randomly sorted by running a program on random.org. Each applicant is assigned an "unfiltered" ranking between 1 and the total number of applicants. For example, in a lottery with 3,000 applicants, each applicant will be assigned a number between 1 and 3,000.
2. Filtering by preference
Preferences are used for all City-sponsored housing.
The lottery report is filtered by lottery preference category. Having a lottery preference improves your chances in a housing lottery. They give current and former San Francisco residents a better chance of living in the City.
Anyone who has a lottery preference is taken from the unfiltered list and sorted into a separate list.
Example: Maria has an "unfiltered" ranking of 5, and Robert has an "unfiltered" ranking of 8. They are both part of the same preference category. Maria and Robert have the highest "unfiltered" rankings of all other applicants in that preference. So, Maria would have a ranking of 1 and Robert would have a ranking of 2 in that preference category.
3. Posting
All lottery results are posted online to their listing no later than one week after the lottery.
4. After the lottery
The sales agent, leasing agent, or MOHCD staff will start contacting households in lottery rank order, sorted by preference.
You must provide current or updated financial documents as soon as we ask for them. Otherwise, we may skip you and go to the next-ranked household in the lottery.
- For renters, it may be months before you can move in. The timeline depends on the leasing agent and the state of the building.
- For BMR homebuyers, there are additional requirements for closing the property. See post-lottery process for BMR homebuyers
- For DALP applicants, there are additional requirements after the lottery. See post-lottery process for DALP applicants