DiNapoli review: NYS agency ‘failed to do its job’ on housing discrimination

ALBANY — The state agency tasked with investigating discrimination in housing, including actions by landlords and real estate agents, has lost complaints, failed to investigate others and generally “failed to do its job,” a state audit says Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

An audit by the state Department of Human Rights found that some complaints were filed in a Cabinet department called the “Twilight Zone.” There were cases in the Cabinet that were deemed erroneous or required further information, but were not investigated further.

The Division of Human Rights is the agency responsible for enforcing state laws against discrimination in housing. It also examines cases referred by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development related to public housing, as well as cases referred by nonprofit organizations that provide housing for lower-income residents.

“New Yorkers who face housing discrimination are told that they can report it to the state Division of Human Rights and that it will be investigated, but the agency has often failed to do its job,” DiNapoli said. “She has lost cases due to negligence and failed to investigate others properly or quickly.”

“Tenants whose complaints were mishandled may have continued to be discriminated against or forced to move,” the state auditor said.

Some of the cases cited in the audit were the types of discrimination found in Newsday’s 2019 Divided Long Island investigation. The articles found evidence of widespread separate and unequal treatment of homebuyers and renters in racial minority communities on Long Island.

Auditors conducted a sample review of cases from April 2019 to October 2023 and found 2,263 complaints of discrimination. Of these, 1,095 were based in New York City. Suffolk County had the fourth most discrimination complaints with 130 and Nassau was sixth with 116 complaints.

The Human Rights Division was unable to account for 68% of complaints received during this period. After the auditors reported this, half of it still could not be taken into account, the audit said. According to auditors, the complaints were lost, not processed or mislabeled. who blamed the department’s “complicated and mismanaged admissions system.”

The agency told auditors during the review in August that the problems uncovered by the audit were “unacceptable” and that it had been working on improvements to its system for months.

“DHR did not wait for the release of today’s report to take decisive action to address and resolve these issues,” the agency said in a written statement. Denise Miranda, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s new acting commissioner, is making “sweeping and transformative changes, not only within the Housing Investigations Unit, but across the agency.”

“It is encouraging that the agency is taking steps to address the issues raised by this audit,” DiNapoli said Thursday.

The agency has also created an “internal audit unit” to modernize, expand and quickly respond to complaints.

“It explains a lot. That doesn’t surprise me,” said Ian Wilder, executive director of Long Island Housing Services, a nonprofit that advocates for fair housing. “We had problems with cases in the future.”

However, Wilder points out that much of the problem may be a lack of staff and funding.

“I don’t want to excuse it, but my question is how much of this is bad policy and how much of it is underfunding,” Wilder said. “None of this works without people.”

But he said he has already seen a greater financial commitment to eliminating discrimination in housing.

The agency’s Housing Investigation Unit investigates, prosecutes and adjudicates cases of housing discrimination by sellers, owners, landlords, real estate agents and brokers. Discrimination includes the refusal to sell or rent apartments and houses to people based on age, race, income, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status and disability.

In a sample review of 175 complaints, auditors found that in 47% of cases, officials either failed to investigate or failed to notify the person accused of discrimination within 30 days, as required by law. In one case, it took nearly two years for officials to serve a complaint on a person accused of discrimination.

The audit also quotes an unidentified investigator who said the Human Rights Division directed staff to prioritize cases involving federally subsidized housing “based on federal reimbursement,” the comptroller’s office said.