In 2013, after a post-stroke spinal fracture, Albert Pickett, Jr. moved back into his childhood home in East Cleveland. But there was a problem. His mother had about $550 in overdue water bill payments.
On disability, Pickett was denied a payment plan with Cleveland Water. That same year, his water was shut off. He went six years without running water.
A 2019 class action lawsuit against the city detailed his case and those of others that argued residents were denied proper due process: Pickett, like hundreds of other Cleveland Water customers in the past six years, was never directed to the utility’s Water Review Board for a chance to dispute his shut off.
“In his interactions with Cleveland Water,” court documents read, “Mr. Pickett was never told about his right to a hearing.” The eventual $2,800 in charges were, court documents read, “erroneous.”
Lawyers for the five named plaintiffs — Picket as well as Keyonna Johnson, Jarome Montgomery, Odessa Parks and Tiniya Shepherd — further argued the city violated the federal Fair Housing Act and Ohio Civil Right Act with liens being disproportionately placed on homes with Black owners and residents.
This week, the city of Cleveland reached a $3 million settlement in the class action lawsuit. Though details are still being finalized, Cleveland is expected ot pay $1.8 million in damages, $1.2 million in lawyer’s fees and $14,000 each to the named plaintiffs.
What started out as a civil rights dispute led by then housing attorney Rebecca Maurer and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund grew into close scrutiny of Cleveland Water’s billing policies over the past decade through the lens of racial bias: Seventy percent of liens during that time were placed on Black homes.
From 2013 to 2017, roughly 72,000 complaints of overbilling were filed to the city. In the same span, some 11,000 water liens were fixed to Cleveland Water clients’ property tax bill. Those led to thousands of home foreclosures. Again, mostly in Black neighborhoods.
The city is pleased to come to a resolution, according to court proceedings.
“I would like to say to the class members that we are committed to following the terms that we’ve agreed upon,” Law Director Mark Griffin said in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, according to Cleveland.com. “And we look forward to it.”
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