New York Attorney General Letitia James has taken action against New York City property owner and management company Shamco Management Corp. (Shamco) for illegally denying housing opportunities to low-income renters in New York City.
The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) found that Shamco, which owns or manages approximately 1,300 units, including 1,161 rent stabilized units, in 31 buildings primarily located in Harlem and Central Brooklyn, violated New York’s human rights laws by refusing to rent to New Yorkers with housing vouchers.
The company intentionally ignored potential tenants who disclosed their voucher status, artificially inflating rents above voucher thresholds, telling voucher holders an apartment was rented when it was still available, and other discriminatory practices.
As a result of OAG’s action, Shamco will pay $400,000 to potential renters who were unjustly denied housing because of their voucher status. Shamco will also rent at least 65 units to tenants with housing subsidies and provide them with at least one renewal lease.
“Housing is a human right, and everyone deserves fair access to housing, regardless of their source of income,” said Attorney General James. “Shamco’s discriminatory practices against voucher holders denied hardworking families the opportunity to secure stable housing and further exacerbated our housing crisis. My office will always stand up to ensure all New Yorkers are afforded equitable opportunities to find safe and affordable housing.”
The OAG opened an investigation into Shamco in late 2021. Throughout the investigation, OAG found multiple instances of discriminatory practices, including refusing to show voucher holders rental units, telling a voucher holder the apartment was rented when it was in fact available, ignoring potential tenants once they disclosed their voucher status, and marking potential applicants with vouchers as “not qualified” regardless of their credit or other qualifying factors.
Shamco also told its brokers contradictory policies of how they should interact and show apartments to voucher holders, leading to biased and unfavorable treatment.
At least one Shamco employee was told by their supervisors to lie to prospective tenants if they discovered they had a voucher during an apartment tour and make up reasons to delay the rental process. If the prospective tenant followed up, the Shamco employee was directed to tell them that the apartment had been rented and was no longer available, even when that was not true.
A list of potential renters reviewed by OAG found that out of 42 prospective tenants, 39 applicants, all with Section 8 vouchers, were marked as “not qualified.” Shamco refused to rent to these tenants simply because they were voucher holders.
One prospective tenant with cancer had a scheduled apartment tour with Shamco, but when he disclosed that he had a CityFHEPS voucher, the Shamco employee he had been working with stopped responding. Another voucher holder residing in a shelter was promised that Shamco would follow up with him about a unit at the end of the month, but Shamco ghosted him because of his voucher status.
