A fair housing lawsuit first launched against Douglas Elliman and several of its agents in 2023 has been dismissed by a federal judge with prejudice.
The suit filed by Section 8 voucher holder and homebuyer Shaniqua Newkirk, who is Black, alleged that agents at the New York-based luxury firm violated the Fair Housing Act in either failing to respond to her requests for assistance in finding housing or simply not helping her with her Section 8 voucher.
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Because the case was dismissed with prejudice, Newkirk will not be allowed to bring the claims forward again in a future lawsuit.
“We disagree with the Court’s reasoning in dismissing the Complaint,” Andrew Miltenberg, an attorney for Newkirk, wrote in a statement sent to The Real Deal. “We believe that there is a clear and compelling basis for the lawsuit and are considering our appellate options.”
Attorneys for Newkirk did not immediately respond to Inman’s request for comment.
Douglas Elliman said it was pleased with the judge’s ruling, which came in on March 13.
“We are thrilled to see these predatory and baseless claims rejected by the court and that the well-earned reputations of our agents and our firm have been affirmed,” a spokesperson for Douglas Elliman said in an email to Inman. “The dismissal of this lawsuit underscores Douglas Elliman’s zero-tolerance policy against any unlawful discrimination. We pride ourselves on our agent training programs, which include rigorous education on fair housing laws.”
The judge’s dismissal says that Newkirk and her attorneys failed to file an amended complaint by the court’s deadline, even though that deadline was extended twice, ultimately to Feb. 27, 2025. On March 5, defendants in the case requested the court dismiss Newkirk’s claim with prejudice, a few days after which the court ordered Newkirk to show cause as to why it should not be dismissed after failing to comply with court orders. By March 12, Newkirk had consented to the court’s dismissal.
Steven Siegel, another attorney for Newkirk, said in a letter to Judge Marrerro on March 12 that he and other counsel “did not find any authority to reinstate the cause of action” in the case. He also acknowledged that the court had found further reason to dismiss the case “including a failure to demonstrate Plaintiff’s damages.”
Newkirk had alleged that she started reaching out to agents at the firm based on a list of New York City’s top agents in June 2021, seeking assistance in finding an apartment with her Section 8 voucher. But many of the firm’s agents either ignored her outreach or suggested that they were not the best agent for the job since their specialization was at the high-end of the market. Because she was not able to connect with an agent or find alternative housing before her voucher expired, she was “forced to remain in a decrepit rodent and vermin-infested apartment,” the complaint said.
Elliman agent Madeline Hult Elghanayan, a scion of the Elghanayan family of real estate developers, wrote in an email to Newkirk, “I only specialize in luxury real estate transactions and don’t even know what sec 8 means.”
Some of the firm’s other well-known current and former agents that were named in the lawsuit include Holly Parker, Eleonora Srugo of Selling the City, Noble Black, Tamir Shemesh, Frances Katzen, and embattled (and now imprisoned) brother-brokers Tal and Oren Alexander.
The lawsuit also alleged the luxury firm violated city laws by only minimally displaying information about fair housing and anti-discrimination, rather than following the city’s mandate to display such information “prominently and conspicuously.”
“Only at the very end of the homepage in tiny font under the heading of State Disclosures is a link,” the complaint said. “Defendants are more concerned with their luxury brand than they are with following the law.”
Douglas Elliman has called the claims “predatory and baseless” since the lawsuit was first reported on in 2023.
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