Affordable housing lotteries are often the first step toward connecting households with an opportunity, but not all households start from the same place. Weighted lotteries allow organizations to recognize program-relevant factors, like local ties or program history, without disqualifying anyone or creating rigid priority tiers. Every household still has a fair chance; weighted criteria simply give qualifying households additional opportunities to rank well.
Standard vs. Weighted Lotteries
Standard Lotteries
- Every eligible household receives one entry
- All entries have an equal chance of being ranked first
- Ideal when there are no program-specific weighted criteria
Weighted Lotteries
- Households may receive additional entries based on weighted criteria (e.g., local employment, program tenure, household size)
- Each entry is assigned a separate random rank
- The household's best-ranked entry determines their lottery position
- More entries means more chances to rank well — not a guarantee
Standard Lottery | Weighted Lottery |
One entry per eligible household | One or more entries based on verified weighted criteria |
Every household has the same probability of receiving the top rank | Priority groups receive additional chances while maintaining randomness |
No program preferences or priority groups | Supports policy goals and community priorities |
Best suited for simple, equal-opportunity draws | Best suited for programs with targeted priorities and flexible verification |
How Weighted Entries Work
Think of it like a physical lottery with a bowl of entries. Every household gets one general entry in the bowl. For each weighted criterion a household qualifies for, an additional entry is added. All entries are randomized and drawn one at a time. The first time a household's entry is drawn, that becomes their rank.
Example: A program uses two weighted criteria — local employment and program tenure. A household that qualifies for both receives 3 entries (1 general + 2 weighted). A household that qualifies for one receives 2 entries. A household that qualifies for neither receives 1 entry. All three households are in the lottery — weighted criteria improve the odds of a favorable rank, but every household has a real chance.
The Soft-No Model
During application review, staff verify whether each household actually qualifies for the weighted criteria they claimed on the screening form.
If a criterion is found invalid:
- The entries linked to that criterion are removed
- The household keeps their next-best valid rank
- They are not disqualified from the lottery
This soft-no approach means households are never penalized for a good-faith claim that doesn't hold up at verification. It also means staff can run the lottery on self-reported data and verify afterward — without having to process applications or qualify entries for all participants before the lottery is run.
Choosing Weighted Criteria
Weighted criteria should reflect genuine program goals and be verifiable at the application stage. Common examples include:
- Local residency or employment — connection to the community where housing is located
- Program tenure — households who have been on a waitlist or in a program for a longer period
- Household size — matching households to appropriately sized units
- Referral source — households referred through a partner organization or grant program
Criteria should be objective and consistently applied. Avoid criteria that could correlate with protected class characteristics without a clear program justification.
If you plan on awarding additional entries based on the number of years live in area, proceed with caution. Households will continue to surface all manner of strange receipts and anectdootal evidence beyond your due dates. Public House recommends that if you do wish to use this approach: We recommendations. t is a popular approach to use years of local residency to get additional awarded entries. Be careful: this is extremely difficult to validate over long periods of time. If you do go down this road, we highly recommend that you clearly define which documents can be used to establish the residency for each year.
- Define exactly what type of evidence you will accept and the restrictions on those documents.
- Set hard deadlines for submitting this evidence. THeir number of years lived can checnge at any time of year.
- This will need to be re-evaluated each lottery as their year’s lived don’t line up with calendars.
- You must create policy on how you view leaving and returning - and with that be able to verify those dates.
- You must create policy around what counts as a year.
Year’s employed is much easier to verify - except for gig economy and remote workers.
Setting Up Weighted Criteria
Weighted criteria are configured on the Lottery Screening Form. See Lottery Screening Form Configuration for setup steps.