Section 8 landlords sue Philadelphia Housing Authority

Landlords from across the region sued the Philadelphia Housing Authority on Friday, alleging that the agency fraudulently took their money for an illegal lobbying fund and for the "personal enrichment" of PHA employees.

In the federal lawsuit, eight property owners seek payments of $10,000 to $100,000 for each person required to pay for training to participate in the Housing Choice voucher program.

Between 2008 and August 2010, PHA required landlords participating in the federally funded voucher program to pay $200 each for a training course. The property owners were required to pay the fee to a PHA-affiliated nonprofit agency, the Pennsylvania Institute of Affordable Housing Professionals, which former PHA Executive Director Carl R. Greene organized to do lobbying work, according to interviews and PHA records. The institute is also named as a defendant in the suit.

Attorneys representing several PHA officials named as defendants said they had not yet seen the suit, which is seeking class-action status. They said they could not comment until they had reviewed the filing.

PHA issued a statement Friday, saying that the training courses had been "extremely beneficial to the city's neighborhoods. Properties are better maintained."

"PHA requires its landlords to invest in themselves and their property-management knowledge base through this daylong course," the statement said.

It denied the suit's contention that PHA employees enriched themselves.

"It is inaccurate and untrue to suggest that anyone at PHA has personally gained from the fees paid for this course," the statement said.

The classes were provided by the local office of the Institute of Real Estate Management, a well-known national organization.

The suit also names as defendants three current PHA executives: Diane Rosenthal, assistant director of finance and administration; Linda Staley, executive general manager; and Carolyn Carter, assistant executive director of operation and also president of the Pennsylvania Institute of Affordable Housing Professionals.

Also named as defendants are three former executives: Michael Leithead, who served as deputy executive director; Kirk Dorn, who was PHA's spokesman for years and secretary of the Pennsylvania Institute of Affordable Housing Professionals; and Greene, who was fired in September for failing to inform the PHA board of three sexual-harassment claims against him that had been settled for $648,000.