In less than 24 hours, the Miami-Dade Director of Public Housing and Community Development says more than 21,000 people applied for the county’s public housing program.

“This is the first day so we anticipate there’s gonna be many more applications coming in,” Alex Ballina said Tuesday.

The waitlist for Miami-Dade public housing is limited. Only 7,500 people will be randomly selected via an electronic lottery and currently there are 500 units available.

“That doesn’t mean that there’s 7,500 units available today. That means that you get put on the waitlist which could be day one or it could be 3 to 5 years down the road when a unit is offered,” said Ballina.

According to Ballina, the county is working on substantial rehabilitation on some of their buildings to offer additional units.

“We’re looking into opening up a housing navigator page where people could go online and look at all of the units available for different programs. Housing is a complex world. There’s a lot of different programs that are out there,” said Ballina.

The waitlist for public housing is not the same program as Section 8. This application process is strictly for units owned by Miami-Dade County, not individual landlords accepting Section 8 vouchers.

“Last time that we opened up the waitlist it was about 2014 and the reason why it’s taken so long is the last time we opened it up we had over 30,000 applicants. So we called and contacted every single person on the original waitlist prior to opening up a new waitlist,” said Ballina.

Applications are online only. To apply online, click here.

If you need technical support or don’t have internet access, you can go to one of these libraries for assistance:

• Main Library – 101 West Flagler Street, Miami, FL 33130
• Model City Branch Library – Caleb – 2211 NW 54th Street, Miami, FL 33142
• Community Action and Human Services – Rev. Edward T. Graham / Miami Gardens – 16405 NW 25th Avenue, Miami Gardens, FL 33054
• Community Action and Human Services – Naranja – 13955 SW 264th Street, Naranja, FL 33032
• Community Action and Human Services – Accion – 970 SW 1st Street, 4th Floor, Miami, FL 33130
• Community Action and Human Services – Culmer – 1600 NW 3rd Avenue, Miami, FL 33136
• Community Action and Human Services – Edison – 150 NW 79th Street, Miami, FL 33150
• Community Action and Human Services – Florida City – 1600 NW 6th Court, Florida City, FL 33034
• Community Action and Human Services – Frankie S. Rolle / Coconut Grove – 3750 S. Dixie Hwy, Suite 117, Miami, FL 33133

The public housing application is open until October 25th.