A Douglas Elliman dealer was fired after two potential renters say an condominium exhibiting in Flushing, Queens became a discriminatory incident.
Lisa Renee Olaso and her fiancé filed a lawsuit in opposition to the brokerage, one among its brokers and a property proprietor after the incident, which occurred in June, WABC reported. Upon studying of the lawsuit filed this week, Elliman fired the dealer.
Olaso alleged she was scheduled to fulfill with the dealer to see a rental condominium on twenty sixth Avenue as a part of her relocation plans from Delaware for a job alternative. The dealer, who Olaso says hadn’t met the couple in particular person earlier than the exhibiting, noticed them from a distance and fired off a textual content message to the property proprietor, which unintentionally included Olaso.
“As we had been getting out of the automotive, I acquired the textual content message that stated, ‘Ugh. They’re Black,’” Olaso informed the outlet.
She later confronted the dealer over the message, who claimed it was a reference to Black tenants within the neighborhood who had beforehand prompted bother, based on Olaso.
WABC, which first reported the lawsuit, recognized the dealer by the final title Tzelios. Helen Tzelios is a dealer whose on-line profiles describe her as a Bayside, Queens-based dealer who started her profession at Elliman in 2000 as a licensed gross sales affiliate.
“Douglas Elliman has a zero-tolerance coverage for discrimination of any variety, and the agent is now not with the corporate,” the brokerage stated in a press release.
Elliman was beforehand the goal of a lawsuit alleging discrimination below the Truthful Housing Act, which was.
Shaniqua Newkirk, who’s Black, sued Elliman and numerous its high brokers — together with Noble Black, Frances Katzen, Ann Cutbill Lenane and Lauren Muss — in 2023, alleging the luxurious brokers both didn’t assist her discover housing along with her Part 8 voucher or didn’t reply to her emailed requests to help her.
Within the lawsuit, Newkirk claimed she began reaching out to brokers on an inventory of town’s high brokers in June 2021 to seek out somebody to help her find a brand new condominium along with her voucher. As a substitute, Newkirk alleges her requests had been brushed off or went unanswered.
A spokesperson for Elliman pushed again in opposition to the claims, calling them “predatory and baseless.” The spokesperson additional argued the agency had a “zero tolerance coverage” for discrimination and maintained a “rigorous” coaching program for brokers round truthful housing insurance policies.
A federal choose dismissed the lawsuit in opposition to the agency and its New York Metropolis brokers in March 2025. In a press release on the time, Elliman stated, “We satisfaction ourselves on our agent coaching packages, which embody rigorous schooling on truthful housing legal guidelines.”
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