Federal Appellate Court Allows Black Residents to Continue Class Action Lawsuit Challenging Discriminatory Water Billing Policies in City of Cleveland

Read a PDF of our statement here.

Yesterday, a three-judge panel from the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that Black homeowners and residents who have been impacted by the city of Cleveland’s discriminatory water billing policies may continue their federal class action lawsuit claiming discrimination under the Fair Housing Act. The lawsuit, brought by the Legal Defense Fund (LDF), Covington & Burling LLPand fair housing attorney Avery Friedmanchallenges Cleveland’s policy of placing liens on residents’ homes for unpaid water bills, placing them at risk of foreclosure and home loss. The Sixth Circuit’s decision comes after Cleveland attempted to dissolve the class and repeatedly sought to end the case. The ruling affirms the lower court’s decision certifying the class, an important step that allows a court to consider the claims of a group of similarly situated people with the same legal claims.

“You can’t live your life without clean water,” said Albert Pickett, Jr., a resident of Cleveland and plaintiff in the case. “We’ve been fighting against the City of Cleveland’s unfair water billing policies for years and are happy the case if moving forward.”

“We are pleased the Court agreed with our claim that every Black Clevelander impacted by the City’s record of imposing water liens on Black neighborhoods at a disproportionate rate should be permitted to collectively vindicate their rights under the Fair Housing Act,” said Jennifer A. Holmes, Deputy Director of Litigation at LDF. “They are one step closer to ending the City’s discriminatory policies and obtaining long awaited relief from crippling water bills and practices that place their homes in jeopardy.”

LDF and co-counsel have been involved in this matter since December 2019, when we filed a federal class action lawsuit against the City of Cleveland on behalf of several Black residents and proposed classes of Cleveland Water customers who have been subjected to discriminatory and unfair water billing policies and practices. Since then, courts have repeatedly rejected Cleveland’s requests to end the lawsuit. To learn more about the case, click here.

For more information on the affordable water crisis facing Black communities, view our Water/Color research brief.

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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation’s first civil rights law organization. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub

within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Please note that LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights.