Edwards Circle is Maricopa’s public housing complex, but vouchers allow low-income families to rent private homes and apartments. /Photo by Kyle Norby/inMaricopa
By Suzanne Adams-Ockrassa | Maricopa Monitor
A couple of tenants living in public housing have lost their appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a discrimination case against a Maricopa water district over service deposits.
According to court documents, in 2016 two residents of the Edwards Circle public housing complex in Maricopa, Tavita Pena and Jennifer Peters, and Southwest Fair Housing Council sued the Maricopa Domestic Water Improvement District over the amount of deposit the district required residents in public housing to pay in order to get water service to their homes.
The district required tenants in public housing to pay a $180 deposit while tenants who do not live in public housing only have to pay a $55 deposit to start water service.
The difference in deposit amounts is related to a dispute over unpaid water bills between Pinal County, which owns Edwards Circle, and the water district. The district has a policy since 2000 that landlords are responsible for any delinquent charges that exceed the deposit left on a water bill after a tenant moves out. If the property owner refuses to pay the delinquent charges, a lien is placed on the property.
According to court records, Pinal County refused to pay the delinquent water bills left behind by previous tenants, stating that the district could not place a lien on public property and that paying the bills would violate the anti-gift clause in the Arizona Constitution.
