Southwest Fair Housing Council, Inc. v. Maricopa Domestic Water Improvement District, No. 20-15506 (9th Cir. 2021)
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Maricopa Domestic Water Improvement District supplies water to about 300 households, including the public housing tenants of a Pinal County complex. Property owners like Pinal County are responsible for paying any past tenant’s delinquent water accounts. Pinal County acknowledged that responsibility but consistently refused to pay, contending it was immune to that policy based on its status as a public municipality. In response, the District imposed a new policy that increased to $180 the refundable security deposit required of new public housing customers before the District would provide water services. New non-public housing customers were subject to a $55 deposit.
The Ninth Circuit rejected a challenge to the policy under the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA), 42 U.S.C. 3604 and 3617, which bars discriminatory housing policies and practices, including those that cause a disparate impact according to certain protected characteristics or traits—race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin. Although the District’s public housing customers are disproportionately African American, Native American, and single mothers, the District established by undisputed evidence that the policy served in a significant way its legitimate business interests; the plaintiffs failed to establish a triable issue of fact that there existed an equally effective, but less discriminatory, alternative. There was insufficient evidence that discriminatory animus was a motivating factor behind the District’s decision to implement its policy.
Court Description: Fair Housing Act. The panel affirmed the district court’s summary judgment in favor of the Maricopa Domestic Water Improvement District (District) in an action brought by two Pinal County public housing residents and Southwest Fair Housing Council, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit corporation (together, “Appellants”), who challenged as impermissibly discriminatory under the federal Fair Housing Act a District policy increasing to $180 the refundable security deposit required of new public housing customers before the District would agree to provide water services, while non-public housing customers were subject only to a $55 deposit. Appellants’ primary argument alleged the policy caused a disparate impact under the Fair Housing Act because it applied only to the District’s public housing customers, who are disproportionately African American, Native American, and single mothers. The district court granted the District summary judgment on the basis that Appellants failed to provide evidence sufficient to establish a triable issue of fact that the policy caused the claimed disproportionate effect (an element of a prima facie disparate impact case). In light of Texas Department Housing & Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project, Inc., 576 U.S. 519, 540 (2015), the panel clarified that, for a plaintiff to make out a prima facie case of disparate impact, he must demonstrate: (1) the existence of a policy, not a one-time decision, that is outwardly neutral; (2) a significant, adverse, and SW. FAIR HOUSING V. MARICOPA DOMESTIC WATER 3 disproportionate effect on a protected class, of which the plaintiff is a member; and (3) robust causality that shows, beyond mere evidence of a statistical disparity, that the challenged policy, and not some other factor or policy, caused the disproportionate effect. The district court held that Appellants failed to demonstrate robust causality. The panel held that the district court erred in that judgment, concluding that Appellants did establish robust causation and did meet their prima facie burden. The panel nonetheless affirmed the district court’s judgment because the District established by undisputed evidence that the policy served in a significant way the District’s legitimate business interests and because Appellants failed to establish a triable issue of fact that there existed an equally effective, but less discriminatory, alternative. Appellants also brought a disparate-treatment claim, alleging that discriminatory animus was a motivating factor behind the District’s decision to implement its policy. The panel affirmed the district court’s holding that Appellants did not adduce evidence sufficient to establish a triable issue of fact with respect to that claim.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on November 12, 2021.
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