Philadelphia Housing Authority

In North Philadelphia, hundreds of families live trapped in conditions not too different from those in Eastern Europe's war-torn countries. Block after block of condemned houses or burnt-out shells are interspersed with homes that are often overcrowded, decrepit and dangerous. Many can't afford to rent another place or repair the one they have. They can't purchase a home because banks usually don't lend to poor folks in poor neighborhoods. And they don't complain to their landlords for fear of a retaliatory eviction, which will result in homelessness.

IT HAS BEEN my experience over the last 30 years as an anti-crime activist in Philadelphia that the Philadelphia Housing Authority hasn't truly reached out to the many citizen volunteers or groups that combat crime in our city in implementing a real anti-crime strategy with regards to quality of life and other crime that currently plague many PHA sites. I have on many occasions attempted to sit down with PHA police officials in forming a game plan targeting PHA sites in the East Police Division area with no return dialogue from PHA officials?

This latest episode of PHA head Carl R. Greene shows that he needs to be shown the door. The latest allegations and settlements prove that he is not worthy of heading that agency. These alleged incidents along with his lackadaisical handling of his personal financial issues show clearly it's time to step down. This agency is supplied public funds and as such these settlements are not privileged or private information when it came to use of such funds to settle these incidents. Taxpayers are again being shortchanged to no avail as this man allegedly got away with more than meets the public eye!

The Philadelphia Housing Authority board of commissioners is calling a mass meeting of the agency's 1,400 employees to boost morale after six weeks of nonstop controversy. The session, set for 9 a.m. Thursday at the Convention Center, is to "thank them for their work," said PHA Board Chairman John F. Street. The meeting will be held a week after the board fired the executive director, Carl R. Greene, who ran the agency for 12 years. "We know that Carl Greene wasn't a one-man show," said Street.

WOW, WHY am I not surprised? The Philadelphia Housing Authority director of the most corrupt city in America is being foreclosed on. This is the person who is in charge of thousands of Philadelphia properties and can't even manage his own. When are the people of this city gonna wise up and get rid of these bums? What a joke! John B. Hall, Philadelphia

As board chairman of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, former Mayor John F. Street insisted that the agency hire an aide who reported directly to him instead of to Executive Director Carl R. Greene. Such an arrangement appears unusual for someone in Street's role, according to people who have chaired boards at several Philadelphia organizations. "My jaw dropped. It makes no sense that a board chairman is insisting that someone be hired in an organization on the theory that he needs someone who is loyal to him," said Richard Bazelon, a lawyer who chaired the city's Redevelopment Authority (RDA)

Estelle Richman, the sole board member for the Philadelphia Housing Authority, cleared the way Friday for the agency to negotiate a $500,000 settlement in a sexual harassment complaint against ousted Executive Director Carl R. Greene. At PHA's board meeting Friday, Richman approved the use of nonfederal funds to put to rest a complaint filed in April 2010 by former interior designer Elizabeth Helm. Helm's complaint exposed a culture of fear, intimidation, and secrecy at PHA under Greene.

In a major step toward rebuilding the Philadelphia Housing Authority, the agency has named Barbara Adams, general counsel for the State of Pennsylvania under former Gov. Ed Rendell, as its new top lawyer. As PHA's new general counsel, Adams, 59, of Philadelphia, fills a position that has been vacant since 2008. Michael P. Kelly, PHA's administrative receiver, said Friday that Adams becomes the "heart, soul, and backbone of our recovery effort. " Former Executive Director Carl R. Greene dismantled much of PHA's legal apparatus, outsourcing most work to the city's top law firms.

The Obama administration's effort to help three million distressed borrowers refinance into FHA-backed, lower-rate mortgages still faces one big hurdle: Congress. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, in Philadelphia on Friday for a summit on housing policy and related issues at the University of Pennsylvania, said without congressional action to expand the Federal Housing Administration to accommodate so many loans, "there's nothing we can do" for these borrowers.

More than a year ago, Michael Kelly landed arguably the hardest job in town: helming the Philadelphia Housing Authority in the aftermath of Carl Greene. A three-decade housing veteran with tours in New York, Washington, and New Orleans, Kelly specializes in the recovery of troubled agencies, but PHA was in a class by itself. Greene, the autocratic executive paid more than the U.S. secretary of housing and urban development, left in the wake of multiple sexual harassment complaints.

It's been one year since federal housing officials seized control of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, but both they and Mayor Nutter agree the agency is not ready to revert to local control. Nutter is expected to sign an agreement this week to keep the agency in federal receivership for up to a year more, according to Sandra Henriquez, an assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Henriquez said in an interview that PHA's new executive director, Michael P. Kelly, had succeeded "in putting reforms in place to signal that this is a new day. " But, she said, the agency needs more time to complete its recovery in the aftermath of the ouster of executive director Carl R. Greene.

Should the mayor appoint all members of the Philadelphia Housing Authority board?

In the final weeks of 2007, the Philadelphia Housing Authority's executive director, Carl R. Greene, was at war with the federal housing agency. The Department of Housing and Urban Development was threatening to take away PHA's flexibility to spend federal money. If that happened, PHA would lose millions, and Greene would have trouble finishing all the projects on the drawing boards. He needed help from his guy in Washington, David Urban. Urban, 47, the president of American Continental Group, had been working for PHA since 2003 - first as a consultant, later as a registered lobbyist.

Attorney Mark M. Lee was a man of few words when billing the Philadelphia Housing Authority. For at least 100 days, Lee's billing entries stated that he was "on site" at PHA during a federal audit, saying little else. His firm billed the agency $242,000 for his work, at $310 to $315 an hour. PHA has said it needed to pay an outside lawyer to monitor the federal auditors and respond to questions that its own staffers - whose pay is much lower - were unable or too busy to answer.

The Pennsylvania Senate unanimously approved a bill that would give Philadelphia's mayor more power and influence over the Philadelphia Housing Authority. Senate Bill 1174 was approved, 49-0, in a Monday vote and heads to the House Urban Affairs committee. The bill would increase the size of the housing authority's board of commissioners from five to nine and give the office of the mayor the authority to appoint all of its members. Among the cosponsors are Sen. Gene Yaw, a Republican from Bradford County, and Sen. Shirley M. Kitchen, a Philadelphia Democrat.

The Pennsylvania Senate unanimously approved a bill that would give Philadelphia's mayor more power and influence over the Philadelphia Housing Authority. Senate Bill 1174 was approved 49 to 0 in a Monday vote and heads to the House Urban Affairs committee for its consideration. The bill would increase the size of the housing authority's board of commissioners from five to nine and give the office of the mayor the authority to appoint all of its members. Among the cosponsors are Sen. Gen Yaw, a Republican from Bradford County, and Sen. Shirley M. Kitchen, a Philadelphia Democrat.

The Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission is investigating former Mayor John F. Street's role in awarding millions of dollars of Philadelphia Housing Authority legal work to his son's former law firm, according to documents and interviews. Street became chairman of the PHA board in 2004 and voted on at least five occasions to give PHA contracts to Wolf Block Schorr & Solis-Cohen L.L.P., records show. His son, Sharif, billed PHA more than $700,000 while working as a lawyer assigned to the PHA account at the now-defunct firm.

The Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission is investigating former Mayor John F. Street's role in awarding millions of dollars of Philadelphia Housing Authority legal work to his son's former law firm, according to documents and interviews. Street became chairman of the PHA board in 2004 and voted on at least five occasions to give PHA contracts to Wolf Block Schorr & Solis-Cohen L.L.P., records show. His son, Sharif, billed PHA more than $700,000 while working as an attorney assigned to the PHA account at the now-defunct firm.