A Miami-Dade County apartments landlord and a property manager accused of turning away a homeless man because he uses Section 8 vouchers have paid a $25,000 settlement.

Landlord NJZ Enterprises Inc. and real estate services and property management company Renters' Paradise Realty Inc. also are not to deny tenancy because of a renter's income source, such as federal subsidies like Section 8 vouchers, according to the Aug. 28 settlement.

Eric Bason says Renters' Paradise in September 2015 declined his application to rent a NJZ Enterprises unit on the 700 block of Northeast 127th Street in North Miami because he uses Section 8 vouchers. Bason says that at the time he was searching for an apartment on Craigslist and saw advertisements by Renters' Paradise that said “No Section 8″ in the title or the body of the listing. Still, he called to inquire about the unit but says a representative turned him away.

Bason first sued in June 2016 asking the court declare that NJZ and Renters' Paradise discriminated against him and order them to stop denying tenancy based on income source or advertise that they don't accept vouchers. He amended his suit a year later to also seek punitive damages saying NJZ and Renters' Paradise continued to run ads saying “No Section 8″ even after they were notified they were in violation of a Miami-Dade County ordinance, as Bason already had filed an administrative complaint to the county Office of Human Rights and Fair Employment Practices. Bason filed the administrative complaint October 2015, before he sued.

The circuit court lawsuit was filed under a 2014 Miami-Dade County ordinance that prohibits housing discrimination based on income source. There is no federal or Florida law that protects subsidized renters, said Jeffrey Hearne, Bason's attorney.

“He felt that everywhere he turned had advertisements by Renters' Paradise that said, 'No Section 8'” said Hearne, director of litigation for the nonprofit Legal Services of Greater Miami Inc. ”That's why he felt that Renters' Paradise needed to reform its actions.”

NJZ and Renters' Paradise denied any wrongdoing, saying they've always rented to Section 8 voucher holders and that Bason never came to Renters' Paradise to inquire about a unit.

“Mr. Bason has never ever even set foot in this office,” said Francis Jacob, authorized agent for NJZ and Renters' Paradise. “We do accept Section 8 tenants. …. We are not a Rolls-Royce dealership. We don't deny anybody for any reason whatsoever. Everybody's money is green. When Mr. Bason claims we denied him, he never even came in here.”

As for the ads that include the “No Section 8″ statements, the issue there lies with how apartment listings are posted online, Jacob added.

Here's what Jacob said happened: Real estate agencies share listings among each other as a legal form of marketing to attract traffic to their own agencies. This means one agency would re-post a listing in its entirety but put its own phone number in the ad. That's how Renters' Paradise ended up picking up ads for listings that weren't its own, with the “No Section 8″ language.

For his part, Hearne said even though Bason sued one landlord and one real estate agency over ads for one unit, he hopes this case will have wider implications, deterring those knowingly breaking the law or educating those who didn't know the practice is prohibited.

Rejecting tenants for their income source could be a pretext for discrimination over race or familial status, Hearne added.

Bason, who now rents in Miami using his vouchers, said in a media release that he sued because tenants have the right to be considered “without assumptions based on discriminatory stereotypes.”

The $25,000 settlement is for damages, which went to Bason, and legal fees.