The New York Division of Human Rights (DHR) could not account for 82 of the 120 unrecorded housing discrimination complaints audited by the Office of the State Comptroller. Some surfaced in a filing cabinet aptly labeled the “Twilight Zone.” Even after careful digging, 42 remained missing.
Such findings reflect the DHR’s rampant mishandling of housing discrimination complaints between April 2019 and February 2014, delineated in the Comptroller’s report published last Thursday, Oct. 17.
“New Yorkers who face housing discrimination are told they can report it to the state Division of Human Rights and that it will be investigated, but the agency often failed to do its job,” State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a statement. “It lost cases due to carelessness and failed to properly or quickly investigate others. Tenants whose complaints were mishandled may have been left to face continued discrimination or forced to move.”
Human Rights Law protects renters and home buyers statewide from landlords, brokers, and real estate agents from precluding housing or accommodations due to their race, gender, sexuality, disability, or other protected status. The DHR prosecutes such violations. In fact, the agency needs to initiate such investigations within 30 days and conclude them within 100 days.
Historically, racist practices like redlining systemically barred Black Americans from buying and renting in certain neighborhoods throughout the country, including here in New York. But even on an individual level, race and other identity factors impact one’s ability to secure housing.
“The overwhelming majority of eviction cases in New York City that legal service organizations handle, the clients of people of color,” said housing rights advocate Leah Goodridge. “When I litigated, I had less than 10 white clients over the course of 12 years, and I worked in nearly all the five boroughs.”
Deputy Comptroller for State Government Accountability Tina Kim told the AmNews that the audit found an absence of training and appropriate oversight for handling housing discrimination complaints.
“Not having written policies and procedures, having a confusing intake process, not doing basic controls,” Kim said. “Multiple spreadsheets where you’re putting complaints in and then you have a case management system [without] reconciling between the two to make sure that all your complaints get into your system, having staff who freely admitted to us that nobody had ever trained them on their job [and] having somebody pretty senior in the agency reviewing complaints and taking some of them home — all of this indicates it’s a lack of training of the staff.”
Many complaints found in the “Twilight Zone” cabinet were eschewed as “defective applications.” Yet auditors found complaints in the drawer that they did not deem erroneous. The DHR staff later reviewed them and agreed. Defective complaints specifically stem from incomplete forms, but are now only returned to the complainant when “they lack essential information to continue processing the case.”
Kim also underscored DHR’s improper prioritization of complaints prompted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) over state-law cases as the federal agency reimburses such investigations. HUD-related complaints were resolved roughly 165 days earlier on average compared to those without federal status.
Downstate residents, particularly those in New York City, filed the most housing complaints to DHR within the audit period: 415 came from Manhattan, 254 came from Brooklyn, and 234 came from the Bronx.
Before this year, New Yorkers needed to file housing discrimination complaints within a year of the alleged incident, but the statute of limitation was extended to three years this past February.
Harlem resident Coanne Wilshire says HUD referred her to DHR in 2018 after she alleged disability discrimination against her landlord over access to handicap parking. Two DHR cases later, her problem remains unresolved.
“My mobility [and] disability has gotten worse because I’ve had to spend more time on my feet fighting for this,” she said. “After this happened, COVID suddenly hit so just the conveniences of my life…of something as simple as [picking up my groceries] to the fact that then I was dealing with my elderly father having a fall at 93 and convalescing in Long Island, and having to deal with my mother, who was 91 — I was mentally trying to function and move forward with creativity in the new status that I was, which was someone with a permanent mobility disability.”
Despite the audit’s harsh criticism, the DHR — now staffed largely with new personnel including a new acting commissioner — seems to be taking the findings in stride, says Kim. That is not always the case among state agencies after such reports, she adds.
“The issues identified by the audit were unacceptable, and DHR did not wait for the release of today’s report to take decisive action in order to address and rectify these issues,” said a DHR spokesperson in a statement. “Governor Hochul immediately appointed Denise Miranda to serve as Acting Commissioner and directed her to implement wide-ranging and transformative changes, not just within the Housing Investigations Unit but across the entire agency. Since her appointment, Acting Commissioner Miranda has made significant leadership changes and created critical new staff positions within the agency.
“DHR has also launched a new Internal Audit Unit and is working to implement crucial operational efficiencies and to modernize the Division’s technology infrastructure in order to expand and improve access to agency services.”
Miranda, who Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed this past March, reported reforms in progress aligned with recommendations made by the comptroller in the audit. More than two dozen support staff, comprised primarily of investigators, were onboarded to tackle such issues as housing discrimination. All complaints are now compiled on one log to prevent the reported disorganization. And a new assistant director of housing will provide oversight to ensure investigations are above board.
“[In] 180 days, they’re going to actually tell us what you know they’ve done,” said Kim. “And then a year from now, we’re going to go back and see what the status of those recommendations [are]. But all of that hopefully will rebuild public trust that there is an accountability mechanism and that people will make a good faith effort to improve things.”
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.