Several low-income families are living in new Bedford-Stuyvesant townhouses that they bought at bargain prices.

The 12 families recently moved into the Marcy Homes on Vernon Avenue after winning a city housing lottery. The three-story brick buildings are the result of a city and state collaboration and were built with private and public money."These homes, if they were sold on the market, would go for $800,000 to $1 million today," said city Department of Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Shaun Donovan. "We're selling them for about $300,000."

Eleazor Moreno was one of the lucky lottery winners among more than 1,000 applicants, which even included police officers. He scraped and saved while working his way up from hotel dishwasher to supervisor.

"This house is for my mother," Moreno said. "For the past 15 years, I've been saving money so I could have a nice apartment."

While the 31 homes are not all occupied now, the city is still moving ahead with plans to have 165,000 affordable units built by 2013.