NYCHA is the largest public housing authority in North America. NYCHA's Conventional Public Housing Program has 178,554 (as of September 2009) apartments in 336 developments throughout the City in 2,607 residential buildings containing 3,334 elevators (as of September 2009). NYCHA has 11,957 employees serving 175,000 families and 403,581 authorized residents (as of June 29, 2009). This includes 1,489 Section 8 Transition Households with 3,881 residents.

A total of 649,112 New Yorkers are served by NYCHA’s Public Housing and Section 8 Programs. If NYCHA was a city, it would rank 19th in population size in the United States, with New York City ranked first. Based upon the 2008 New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey (HVS) and the most recent population estimate for New York City (July, 2007) respectively, NYCHA Public Housing represents 8.4% of the City's rental apartments and is home to 4.9% of the City’s population.

• NYCHA residents and Section 8 voucher holders combined occupy 13.2% of the City's rental apartments and comprise 7.8% of New York City’s population
  
  CONVENTIONAL PUBLIC HOUSING (as of September 1, 2009)
  
• The Bronx has 92 developments with 44,457 apartments
• Brooklyn has 100 developments with 58,480 apartments
• Manhattan has 102 developments with 53,903 apartments
• Queens has 26 developments with 17,148 apartments
• Staten Island has 10 developments with 4,378 apartments
• Six (6) developments consisting of FHA Acquired Homes are located in more than one borough and total 188 apartments
• 42 developments are for seniors only; 15 seniors-only buildings exist within mixed-population developments
• NYCHA has more than 10,000 apartments designated for seniors only
• There also are 7,695 retrofitted apartments for families of persons who are mobility impaired as of September 16, 2009
  
  SECTION 8 LEASED HOUSING PROGRAM
  
• 99,226 apartments were rented as of August 31, 2009
• A total of 1,976 of these apartments, known as Portability Vouchers, are located outside of New York City
• There are 245,531 residents in Section 8 units 
• There are 32,867 participating-private landlords

• As of June 29, 2009:
  
• Families in the Conventional and Section 8 programs pay no more than 30% of their family income for rent. The rent difference is subsidized by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
• Average family income in Conventional Public Housing is $22,905
• Average monthly rent is $397
• Working families account for 46.3% of NYCHA families
• 11.8% of NYCHA families receive public assistance
• Social Security, SSI, a pension, Veteran's benefits, etc., support 41.9% of the families
• 35.2% of the households are headed by persons over 62 years-of-age
• 37.2% of the NYCHA population are minors under 21 and 30.1% are minors under 18

• On August 31, 2009 There Were:
• 130,058 families on the waiting list for Conventional Public Housing (including 9,673 who are in the certification process) 
• 127,764 families on the waiting list for Section 8 Housing (including 3,343 who are in the certification process). The Section 8 waiting list reopened on February 12, 2007 and subsequently closed on May 14, 2007 
• 32,163 applicants on both lists

NYCHA’s computerized Tenant Selection and Assignment Plan (TSAP) impartially chooses the next applicant for an apartment based on need priorities assigned to each applicant family and matches them to available vacancies as they arise. The TSAP system eliminates any and all interference from external entities and guarantees impartial selection of applicants for vacant apartments based strictly on the need priorities.

• The turnover rate in calendar year 2008 for NYCHA conventional public housing apartments was 3.30%
• The vacancy rate of apartments available for occupancy was 0.65% as of September 1, 2009
• Because of the varied need priorities that comprise a family’s TSAP profile and the low turnover and vacancy rates of apartments, it is virtually impossible to establish an average waiting time for a family to enter conventional public housing. Some applicants can be matched up with an available apartment in months, while others often have to wait years.

• Queensbridge Houses in Queens with 3,142 apartments is the largest development in the City
• Brooklyn's largest development is Red Hook Houses with 2,878 apartments
• Manhattan's largest development is Baruch Houses with 2,391 apartments
• Edenwald Houses in the Bronx is the largest with 2,036 apartments
• Stapleton Houses with 693 apartments is the largest development in Staten Island

New York City's Public Housing is constantly modernized and improved to preserve its availability for future generations. In the past 16 years, NYCHA has invested more than $6.1 billion in preserving our buildings. Under the 2009 American Recovery and Investment Act (Stimulus), NYCHA was awarded $423 million for Capital Improvements.

• As of August 31, 2009: Three developments are at least 70 years old; a total of 20 developments are at least 60 years old; there are 65 developments 50 to 59 years old; another 77 developments are 40 to 49 years old, and 86 developments are 30 to 39 years old.

NYCHA doesn't just provide a place to live. There are a wide variety of programs offered by NYCHA that are geared specifically to special age or special needs groups such as children, teens, single-parents, seniors, substance abusers, and victims of domestic violence, among others. NYCHA oversees a network of over 400 community facilities that include community centers, senior centers, health care centers, day care and Head Start educational centers.

Programs at many of these centers include sports, photography, painting, literacy classes and general education courses, computer training, arts and crafts, childcare feeding and lunch, and senior companion initiatives.