NY AG Undercover Sting Uncovers Buffalo Property Manager Routinely Screwed Section 8 Tenants Out Of Housing Opportunities; Firm To Fork Over $10K

The New York Attorney General's Office announced this month:

• Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo [...] announced his office has stopped a Western New York real estate management company from denying housing to potential tenants because they receive government housing subsidies, including Section 8.(1)

• Under an agreement with the Attorney General’s Office, the managers of Buffalo’s Camelot Court Apartments, Clover Management, Inc., must designate future available units for recipients of government housing subsidies, and provide an apartment to an individual who was initially denied housing because he was a Section 8 recipient. The company must also pay $10,000 to the Attorney General’s Office to be principally used for outreach and education of anti-discrimination laws.

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• Undercover HOME [Housing Opportunities Made Equal - a Buffalo non-profit fair housing group] testers went to Camelot Court seeking apartments. However, when the testers revealed they were Section 8 recipients, the Property Manager told them that the complex did not accept Section 8. The Attorney General’s investigation confirmed that Camelot Court routinely turned Section 8 recipients away.

For more, see AG Cuomo Stops Buffalo Apartment Complex Owner From Discriminating Against People Receiving Financial Housing Assistance.

(1) According to the AG's press release, the City of Buffalo enacted a law in 2006 that makes it illegal for any landlord or property manager to refuse to rent housing to anyone because of their source of income (Chapter 154 of the Code of the City of Buffalo, Discrimination). The settlement marks the first government law enforcement action under the 2006 Buffalo law designed to increase the availability of housing for low- and moderate-income tenants. It is one of several local laws in New York state that prohibit housing discrimination based upon an individual’s source of income, including public assistance, pensions, annuities and government rent subsidies such as Section 8. New York City, Nassau County, Hamburg, and West Seneca have passed similar laws.