The Fair Housing Justice Center (FHJC) and the law firm Giskan Solotaroff Anderson & Stewart LLP filed a lawsuit August 26 charging landlords and property owners with discriminating against an applicant with a disability.
The lawsuit was filed in state court on behalf of Paul Solomons, 44, of New York City, against more than 20 property owners and brokers. Solomons receives Social Security Disability benefits and a Section 8 voucher from the New York City Housing Authority. He has been looking for an apartment through brokers and landlords.
The lawsuit charges the defendants with discriminating against Solomons for his source of income, Section 8 vouchers, by turning down his applications while accepting applicants with other sources of income. Discrimination against people who seek housing using Section 8 as their source of income violates the New York City Human Rights Law.
Section 8 vouchers are provided through a federal assistance program administered by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to help families and individuals with low incomes to pay their rent.
The defendants, who refused to own or lease to Solomons, include Prudential Douglas Elliman, AIM Realty Services Inc., Old Brownsville Renaissance Corp., City Connections Realty Inc. and City Sites New York.
To establish their case, the FHJC – a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that city residents receive equal housing rights – sent people who posed as renters or homebuyers out to determine if the landlords and property owners were participating in illegal practices.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction to immediately end the discriminatory actions toward Solomons and for the defendants to accept his application for the apartment he applied for or an apartment of comparable price and location.
The lawsuit calls on all defendants to develop and implement policies of non-discrimination, and for the defendant who accepts his application to enter into a Housing Assistance Payment contract. Solomons also seeks compensatory damages.
“We have been negotiating with Prudential Douglas Elliman, and hope that they might do the right thing, change their policies, and lead the industry toward compliance with the clear mandate of the law,” said Amanda Masters, an attorney with the law firm Giskan Solotaroff Anderson & Stewart LLP.
“However, those talks are ongoing, with no resolution yet, while the litigation proceeds against all defendants,” Masters said.
In March, Masters won another discrimination case on behalf of a tenant with Section 8 income, earning $105,000 in the settlement.
In April, the FHJC filed a similar lawsuit on behalf of Damion Cales, who has a disability and receives Supplemental Security Income – a federal assistance program for people with disabilities – charging that a real estate agent discriminated against him for his source of income. Defendants for that case included New Castle Hill Realty, Delta Properties USA, Bond New York Properties Group and City Connections Realty.
This article was published in the October 2010 issue of Able News.
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