Suit: apartment manager demanded sex from female tenants

A federal lawsuit alleges that an Albuquerque apartment manager demanded sex from female tenants, threatening them with eviction and other actions if they refused.

The suit alleges that the manager made unwanted sexual advances, including “locking female tenants in his office in order to demand sexual acts,” according to the suit filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Ariel Solis Veleta, manager of the apartment complex, threatened to evict women from the low-income housing complex if they didn’t submit to his demands, the suit said.

Solis Veleta, the manager of Saint Anthony Plaza Apartments at 1750 Indian School NW, also offered to excuse late or unpaid rent in exchange for sex acts, the suit said. The actions continued from 2010 to 2022, it said.

Voice mail messages left on the apartment’s office phone Thursday were not immediately returned. A recorded message for a phone number listed for Solis Veleta said the number was not accepting calls.

The suit alleges that Solis Veleta “demanded that female tenants engage in sex acts with him in order not to lose housing,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a written statement. It also alleges he entered women’s homes in the guise of performing maintenance to demand sex acts.

“Women and children deserve to live free from sexual predation,” Alexander Uballez, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico, said in the statement. “And everybody deserves safe and affordable housing for their families.”

In one case cited in the suit, a woman and her family moved out of the complex after Solis Veleta “locked the office door and told her that he had a folder of complaints about her tenancy that put her at risk of eviction.”

In that case, Solis Veleta “pulled the tenant onto his lap and said he could ‘make it all go away,’” the suit said. “Fearful of losing housing for herself and her family, the tenant submitted to his demands.”

The abuse continued from 2015 through 2022, the suit alleges. The woman and her family ultimately moved from the property.

The 160-unit apartment complex participates in Section 8 rental assistance, a federal Housing and Urban Development program that contracts with multifamily housing properties to subsidize rental payments for low-income families, according to the suit.

HUD’s Inspector General Rae Oliver Davis urged victims of sexual harassment to report abuse to law enforcement officials.

“Every person deserves to feel safe in their homes without facing the threat of being sexually harassed or abused by a property manager,” Davis said in a written statement.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico.

It names as defendants the owners of St. Anthony Plaza Apartments, St. Anthony Limited Partnership and PacifiCap Holdings XXXVIII LLC, and Solis Veleta’s employer, Portland, Oregon-based PacifiCap Properties Group LLC.

The Journal was unable Thursday to reach officials at those companies. No attorneys are listed for the defendants and no responses have been filed, federal court records show.

The suit lists other examples of harassment of women at the complex.

In 2018, the manager entered a woman’s apartment in the evening and laid on top of her on a bed, the suit said.

The woman attempted to avoid further contact with the manager and ultimately moved out, it said.

The suit cites other examples in which Solis Veleta exposed himself and put his hands on female tenants. His actions caused the women “fear, anxiety, and emotional distress” and interfered with their ability to find affordable housing, it said.

The lawsuit alleges discriminatory practices in violation of the federal Fair Housing Act. It seeks unspecified monetary damages to compensate persons harmed by the alleged harassment, a civil penalty and a court order barring future discrimination.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the HUD Office of Inspector General jointly investigated the allegations.

The investigation is part of a larger Justice Department initiative to address sexual harassment by landlords and property managers that has resulted in 39 lawsuits since 2017.