Douglas Elliman Broker Fired, Sued After Alleged Profiling
A Douglas Elliman broker was fired after two prospective renters say an apartment showing in Flushing, Queens turned into a discriminatory incident.
Lisa Renee Olaso and her fiancé filed a lawsuit against the brokerage, one of its agents and a property owner after the incident, which occurred in June, WABC reported. Upon learning of the lawsuit filed this week, Elliman fired the broker.
Olaso alleged she was scheduled to meet with the broker to see a rental apartment on 26th Avenue as part of her relocation plans from Delaware for a job opportunity. The broker, who Olaso says hadn’t met the couple in person before the showing, saw them from a distance and fired off a text message to the property owner, which unintentionally included Olaso.
“As we were getting out of the car, I received the text message that said, ‘Ugh. They are Black,’” Olaso told the outlet.
She later confronted the broker over the message, who claimed it was a reference to Black tenants in the neighborhood who had previously caused trouble, according to Olaso.
WABC, which first reported the lawsuit, identified the broker by the last name Tzelios. Helen Tzelios is a broker whose online profiles describe her as a Bayside, Queens-based broker who began her career at Elliman in 2000 as a licensed sales associate.
“Douglas Elliman has a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind, and the agent is no longer with the company,” the brokerage said in a statement.
Elliman was previously the target of a lawsuit alleging discrimination under the Fair Housing Act, which was.
Shaniqua Newkirk, who is Black, sued Elliman and a number of its top agents — including Noble Black, Frances Katzen, Ann Cutbill Lenane and Lauren Muss — in 2023, alleging the luxury brokers either didn’t help her find housing with her Section 8 voucher or didn’t respond to her emailed requests to assist her.
In the lawsuit, Newkirk claimed she started reaching out to brokers on a list of the city’s top agents in June 2021 to find someone to assist her in finding a new apartment with her voucher. Instead, Newkirk alleges her requests were brushed off or went unanswered.
A spokesperson for Elliman pushed back against the claims, calling them “predatory and baseless.” The spokesperson further argued the firm had a “zero tolerance policy” for discrimination and maintained a “rigorous” training program for agents around fair housing policies.
A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit against the firm and its New York City agents in March 2025. In a statement at the time, Elliman said, “We pride ourselves on our agent training programs, which include rigorous education on fair housing laws.”
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