Largest landlord in the US accused of civil rights violations

Source: The Guardian

Thu 16 Jul 2026 14.09 EDT
Last modified on Thu 16 Jul 2026 14.19 EDT


Greystar, the largest owner and manager of apartments in the US, systematically flouts local laws designed to make housing affordable to the poor, according to civil rights complaints filed with authorities in six states and the District of Columbia.

The complaints – filed this week with government agencies in California, Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Virginia and Washington DC – accuse Greystar of 114 violations of state and DC fair housing laws. They allege that the company refuses to accept federal housing choice vouchers (also known as Section 8) in places that require landlords to accept them.

“We have never encountered a landlord that operates with such brazen contempt and hostility toward the rule of law as Greystar,” Aaron Carr, executive director of the Housing Rights Initiative, said in a statement. “… As the largest landlord in America, Greystar should be setting the standard of best practices for the nation, not systematically rejecting legitimate prospective tenants.”

Carr’s group and a national law firm, Cohen Milstein, submitted the complaints and publicly shared recordings of calls made to Greystar-run buildings by undercover testers posing as potential tenants with vouchers. At every building, the group says, Greystar staff either refused to accept vouchers or imposed unlawful conditions on voucher use.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/16/greystar-landlord-civil-rights-violations