NYC Landlord Settles Record-Breaking $1M Housing Discrimination Suit

The NYC Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) recently announced the largest civil rights settlement in that city’s history for a housing discrimination case. The settlement, against Parkchester Preservation Management, will hold the company accountable for discriminating against voucher holders.

CCHR imposed $1 million in civil penalties, the highest ever ordered for violations under the housing provisions of the NYC Human Rights Law, and secured 850 apartments to be set aside for housing voucher holders, the most ever secured in a CCHR settlement. (You can read the settlement agreement here.)

One level deeper: Source of income discrimination, commonly referred to as “voucher discrimination,” occurs when people are denied housing or tenants are treated as less because they use a form of a public subsidy, including Section 8 and City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement (CityFHEPS) vouchers to pay their rent. Source of income discrimination has been illegal in New York City since 2008 under the city’s Human Rights Law, but it remains one of the most common forms of housing discrimination reported to CCHR.

Here, the landlord required housing applicants to have specific levels of income in relation to the monthly rent of a unit and would not consider the full voucher amount as part of the applicant’s income. This practice made it nearly impossible for anyone with a rental subsidy to qualify for a unit. CCHR concluded that these practices sought to discriminate against voucher holders and keep them from obtaining housing. Of the over 6,000 rental units owned by Parkchester Preservation Management, only a small fraction were occupied by voucher holders.

What’s next: New York City landlords can expect continued source of income discrimination scrutiny by city agencies in the near future. In his 2023 State of the City address, Mayor Adams unveiled a multimillion-dollar investment to address source of income discrimination, including plans to contract with an external provider to identify instances of housing discrimination and support related enforcement work. 

The NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) launched a landmark pilot program with the Housing Rights Initiative (HRI) to both identify source of income discrimination and inform the city’s larger enforcement efforts. And later this year, HPD will issue a new, expanded contract for fair housing testing and related efforts to help root out source of income discrimination across the city.