CLEVELAND — This week marks four years since the NAACP Legal Defense Fund filed a multi-plaintiff, federal discrimination lawsuit against the Cleveland Water Department. It’s a suit sparked by a decade of News 5 Investigations revealing many water customers’ concerns about billing, mysterious leaks, and liens on homes. Here’s an update on where the suit stands, how Cleveland is fighting the suit and some additional questionable spending by the city.
Tiniya Shepherd’s Cleveland Water story started with a fire at a property she rented out. That fire caused damages that required year-long repairs, and she said no one was using water in the boarded-up home. After fixing the place, renters moved in, but within three months, there were problems.
“The new tenants call, and they’re like, ‘Hey, the water is off!’’’ said Shepherd. “They’re fussing. They’re really upset, and I’m feeling horrible, like, why is the water off? You guys just moved there.”
WATER BILL LIEN PLACED ON TINIYA'S HOME
She told us the subsequent, questionable bill from Cleveland Water was almost $3,000. Shepherd said she maxed out credit cards trying to pay for everything, but eventually, Cleveland Water put a lien on the home. “It affects your credit. It affects you mentally, your family and everything and it was just never-ending,” said Shepherd.
She is part of a federal lawsuit filed in 2019. “I’m hoping that Cleveland will stop doing water liens,” she told us.
WATER METER 'WASN'T EVEN HOOKED UP'
“Nobody should lose their home for water. Period,” said Jarome Montgomery from Bedford Heights. He is another plaintiff in the suit. His $10,000 water bill was part of a nightmare foreclosure notice on his condo even after he hired a plumber who found no leaks. Plus, he said this happened. “The plumber then went and looked at the back and said that the water meter wasn’t even hooked up,” said Montgomery.
“Wasn’t even working?” we asked.
“(Not) at all. It wasn’t even registering for (Cleveland Water) to read,” he replied.
Montgomery said he finally got his payments under control by borrowing money from his family.
“What about the people who don’t have that support system?” we asked.
“Them ... people losing they homes to water bills,” Montgomery said.
“Their stories immediately impacted me,” said Attorney Jason Bailey from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. He told us Cleveland Water violated state and federal fair housing laws by tax liens disproportionately affecting minorities, by failing customers’ due process to contest their bills and by not giving people enough notice before shutting their water off.
“Cleveland and other cities need to really take a hard look at how they they’ve been operating and to imagine a more compassionate way of doing things,” Bailey told us.
18,000+ WATER SHUTOFFS IN THE PAST 5 YEARS
News 5 Investigators did new research on 18,000+ water shutoffs in the past five years carried out by Cleveland Water. We mapped out those homes.
There’s also a Legal Defense Fund map submitted in the lawsuit that shows where thousands of liens were placed by the water department.
When you overlay the maps, they closely mimic each other.
“You’re taking the poorest… the one thing that they have their roof over their head and you’re taking that from them,” said Shepherd.
By the way, the water department proved it can pause water liens. It halted them during the pandemic, but our reporting has shown that Cleveland Water is back to placing liens again.
“They should stop,” said Montgomery. “That’s wrong.”
“It’s really troubling that they continue to engage in the practice,” said Bailey.
MORE QUESTIONABLE SPENDING BY CLEVELAND
The city keeps spending tons of money fighting the lawsuit. In 2021 alone, it spent $1.4 million on lawyers fees (News 5 is waiting on a public records request for attorney bills in 2022 and 2023), and that’s going to continue after the city filed appeals prolonging the case even after a recent harsh ruling against Cleveland Water saying the case can move forward.
“I think that the court made a really strong ruling,” said Bailey. “That was based in a really strong understanding of how the Fair Housing Act works.”
As water liens continue to harm at-risk neighborhoods, Cleveland Water keeps promoting water when the department already has a monopoly over Northeast Ohio taps. It spent nearly half a million dollars on handouts like water bottles, bubbles and more during community festivals in the past five years alone. Between the lawyers and the toothbrushes, customers have said city spending needs to be prioritized.
“They could have spent that on a program that would help people with their liens,” said Montgomery.
It’s all been a long road for plaintiffs like Shepherd, who had a message for the city of Cleveland.
“If you know you failed to do right, this is your chance to do right,” she said. “This is your chance to let people save their homes.”
We contacted Cleveland Water, asking about the lawsuit. It said it's “currently working through the court system with outside counsel.” No other comment was given.
