*A Black couple says a single text message, “ugh they are black,” ended their apartment search before it began. Now Lisa Renee Olaso and her fiancé, Cyril Christopher, are taking agent Helen Tzelios to court, PEOPLE reports.
The housing discrimination suit, filed in Queens, also names the owners of the property and Douglas Elliman, the brokerage Tzelios worked with.
The couple’s lawyer, Kenneth Mollins, says the case shows how bias often operates. “Racism isn’t always someone wearing a white hood,” he said. “It’s oftentimes people holding the keys to an apartment and not allowing Black people in.”
The complaint invokes the federal Fair Housing Act and the New York City Human Rights Law. “Fair housing laws are not just suggestions, they are mandates directing that fair housing is a civil right,” Mollins told PEOPLE.
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Douglas Elliman moved quickly once the suit landed. A spokesman said the firm hadn’t heard about the incident before then, and it cut ties with Tzelios, an independent contractor, less than an hour later. “Douglas Elliman has a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind,” he said. Tzelios did not respond to a request for comment.
According to the lawsuit, Tzelios, 61, told Olaso the text went to her by accident and called the whole thing a “misunderstanding.” The suit says she also brought up “prior problems” involving Black renters in the area.
“What does that have to do with us?” Olaso said at a press conference in Hauppauge.
Christopher said the wording spoke for itself. “Once you said ‘Ugh’ showed you discriminated against us. And then you put, ‘They are Black.’ What difference does it make?”
The pair had come from Delaware in June for the tour on 26th Avenue after Olaso, 53, took a job in New York. Olaso, emotional as she recalled the moment, said the text hit her phone as they arrived. She thinks Tzelios meant to send it to the landlord.
Though Tzelios offered to go ahead with the visit, the couple walked away and stopped all contact with her. They have since found a home in Commack.
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