Class action status sought in renter discrimination lawsuit against landlord NPS Property

A lawsuit filed against Lindenhurst-based NPS Property Corporation for allegedly discriminating against would-be renters based on disability, race and source of income has been amended by plaintiffs in an effort to make it a class action, according to Newsday. NPS Property owns five apartment complexes in Suffolk County. A federal judge in Central Islip must certify the class action in order for it to move forward. The litigation was filed last June by Doreen Kernozek, Long Island Housing Services and Suffolk Independent Living Organization. Patchogue resident Lori Gerardi has been added as a plaintiff to the amended civil complaint. She gets a federal subsidy for disabled people and was allegedly turned down twice for units at South Shore Commons, an NPS complex in West Babylon. NPS allegedly told her that they had “reached their quota” for disability subsidy recipients. Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, a national plaintiffs firm, is representing the Gerardi, Kernozek and others in the putative class action. Ilene Jaroslaw, a former federal prosecutor who in February joined New York-based Phillips Nizer, is now advising NPS Property in the case. [Newsday]