NYC real estate giant who ghosted, lied to low income tenants exposed by undercover ‘testers’: suit

A New York City real estate company was exposed by undercover “testers” for blocking low-income renters by lying to them — or even ghosting them, a new lawsuit claims.

The Parkoff Organization, owner of 4,000 apartments across the city, illegally tried to turn away testers posing as would-be renters who used housing vouchers — while offering apparently wealthy applicants unlisted units and even reduced rents, according to the suit.

“There is no valid or even rational reason for landlords and brokers to discriminate against people who use housing vouchers,” said Elizabeth Grossman, executive director and general counsel for the Fair Housing Justice Center, which brought the case against Parkoff.

Trained testers posed as would-be renters last year to uncover the alleged tactics — sometimes claiming high incomes and other times saying they would use be covering living costs using government-issued housing vouchers.

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Parkoff — which previously faced two discrimination lawsuits and consent decrees in 1991 and 2016, taccording to the suit — allegedly responded very differently after learning the source of the would-be renters’ incomes, the lawsuit alleged.

One tester claiming a $2,300 voucher through the city’s CityFHEPs program was discouraged from applying for a 500-square-foot apartment listed for $1,860 — with a Parkoff broker saying the city might not approve the rental because of building violations, the suit said.

The broker ghosted the applicant, who asked if there were other units available in that range, according to the allegations. But the same broker showed a high-income tester the apartment the next day — and offered two other units in a Seaman Avenue building with even lower rents and no existing violations, according to the suit.

The broker “made clear through statements and his actions that he did not like working with voucher holders, even in connection with a building that did not have any known violations,” according to the lawsuit.

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Hours after one voucher tester was allegedly told by another broker there were no units available in a Bronx building, a high-income tester was offered to view six units in buildings on Henry Hudson Parkway East and Netherland Avenue, all with rents below the tester’s voucher amount.

One broker even managed to show an Upper East Side studio on East 76th Street to a pair of testers at the same time. After the viewing, the voucher tester was ghosted but the high-income tester was quickly sent an application.

Blocks away, a broker told a voucher tester that two listed units on York Avenue had just received applications, but told a high-income tester the next day that the units were still available.

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Attorney Heather Gregorio, who is helping to represent the Fair Housing Justice Center in their suit, praised the work of the testers.

“Individuals with vouchers are often turned away or put off by dozens and dozens of real estate agents and landlords,” Gregorio said. “Testing is at times the only way to uncover and prove that potential tenants would have been treated differently if they did not have vouchers.”

Voucher holders cover a wide swath of New Yorkers and include many families, said Gregorio.

Since many voucher holders are people of color, “source of income discrimination is thus closely tied to and often a proxy for racial and other forms of discrimination,” she said.

Parkoff did not respond to a message left with their office by time of publication.

Grossman said the whole point of vouchers is to provide landlords with “guaranteed rent payments.”

“We saw this during the early days of the pandemic, when so many tenants lost their jobs and could not pay their rent,” she said. “And landlords benefited significantly from reliable rent payments on behalf of voucher holders.”

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