Last week, Mayor Eric Adams and the New York City Commission on Human Rights signed off on an historic settlement against Parkchester Preservation Management.

Now, residents and housing advocates are speaking out.

“We hope the summons serves as a notice to other landlords that discrimination does not pay,” said Elizabeth Grossman, the executive director and general counsel for the Fair Housing Justice Center, which is based in Long Island City.

Grossman said after filing a complaint in 2016 against Parkchester Preservation Management with regards to housing discrimination, she is pleased that the New York City Commission on Human Rights has fined the Bronx landlord $1 million in civil penalties, which the city said marks the largest settlement ever ordered for a housing discrimination case under NYC's human rights law.

“They no longer put words like no vouchers and no programs in their ads,” Grossman said. “They are hiding it by creating policies such as minimum income policies, by creating dual tracks, where voucher holders are told that the landlord wants to work with them, and then they are treated differently than other tenants.”

The New York City Commission on Human Rights said the Bronx landlord had denied housing to people who use a form of public subsidy, such as Section 8 and CityFHEPS vouchers to pay their rent.

As part of a settlement deal Thursday, the landlord will set aside 850 apartment units for tenants who use housing vouchers.

Two longtime residents said they were not aware that their landlord had discriminate against people who use housing vouchers to help pay rent.

“It shouldn’t happen like that,” said tenant Yaw Baffou.

"Things should be fair,” added tenant Jordan Dally. “They should be able to use the vouchers, so if they have been discriminating and disqualifying people based on that, then they deserve their fine, I guess."

One longtime tenant who feared retaliation did not want his face shown. He said after seeing his property management’s shortcomings when it comes to issues such as maintenance, he was not surprised by the settlement.

“I feel like they’re not really competent people to be running like a management,” he said. “I don’t know if you realize, Parkchester is a really, really big neighborhood with a lot of residents, a lot of buildings, and sooner or later something like this was bound to happen.”

Meanwhile, Adams has said as the city tackles a generational housing shortage and affordability crisis, his administration will continue to go after what he calls "bad actors" who prey on New Yorkers in the housing market.

Over the past few days, NY1 has reached out to Parkchester Property Preservation for comment on the settlement, and is waiting to hear back.