Philadelphia Housing Authority

Carl Greene tried to be tactful. At a groundbreaking Thursday, the executive director of the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) described a former public housing project at 72d Street and Paschall Avenue as "attractive for antisocial behavior. " Read: drug-dealing on such a colossal scale that it led to a federal sting and the arrests of 22 people in 2006. At the time, federal agents and Philadelphia police pledged to rid the area of crime. And Greene vowed to raze the fortress-style apartment complex and replace it with a livable, secure community.

More than two dozen people testified Tuesday during a City Council hearing about police conduct on a force that has seen 15 officers arrested since March 2009. The witnesses in the six-hour hearing before Council's Committee on Public Safety included police officials such as Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey and grieving parents Timothy and Pamela Goode, relatives of former Mayor W. Wilson Goode whose 24-year-old son was shot and killed two years ago by a police officer. Pamela Goode testified that in March 2008, as her son Timothy Jerome "Tee" Goode ran from police in Germantown, Officer Anthony Avery shot him twice in the back, killing him. Police at the time said that the shooting was in self-defense and that Timothy Jerome Goode had trained his gun on undercover narcotics officers.

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 embattled Philadelphia Housing Authority has cut off funding to a public-housing nonprofit headed by Asia Coney, a veteran tenant leader and close ally of former Executive Director Carl R. Greene. Tenant Support Services Inc. (TSSI), which paid Coney $108,000 to manage training and other support services for public-housing tenants, is the subject of multiple government investigations into allegations that funds were misspent. Michael P. Kelly, PHA's top administrator, said the authority decided Wednesday not to exercise an option to provide more money to TSSI, and would take over the nonprofit's programs and services.

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

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 mortgage foreclosure crisis has claimed an unlikely victim: Carl R. Greene, executive director of the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA). Wells Fargo Bank has foreclosed on Greene's $615,035 condominium in the upscale Naval Square development in the city's Schuylkill section. In a lawsuit filed July 27, Wells Fargo said the amount in dispute was $386,685.22. Greene, 53, runs the nation's fourth-largest public housing agency and is one of the highest-paid public officials in the city.

New York City will lend the Philadelphia Housing Authority its housing authority's general manger under a deal being finalized to plug the considerable void created by the firing of Executive Director Carl R. Greene, officials in both cities said Wednesday. The PHA directors Tuesday authorized Chairman John F. Street to negotiate a contract with Michael Kelly, general manager of the New York City Housing Authority, the largest such agency in the country, with more than 178,000 units and 11,000 employees.

Through a combination of layoffs, cost cutting, and property sales, the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) hopes to offset by $23.3 million the shortfall in its budget caused by the sequester cuts. At Thursday's board meeting, PHA Commissioner Estelle Richman approved the budget plan for the fiscal year beginning April 1. PHA expects to raise $4 million by selling scattered sites of housing - mostly stand-alone rowhouses and vacant lots. The agency will reduce overhead through savings on its insurance policy, $2.6 million, and reductions in administrative costs, $6 million.

In a major step toward restoring local control of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, Mayor Nutter has submitted to City Council the names of nine candidates for the agency's Board of Commissioners. Resolutions for each nominee, introduced Thursday by Council President Darrell L. Clarke, are likely to be voted on before Council's last session on Dec. 13. Since March 2011, PHA has been under the control of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) with only one commissioner, Estelle B. Richman.

Responding to chronic complaints about crime in public housing, the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) will almost triple its police force in the year ahead, adding up to 50 new officers. The move reverses an approach to policing that had been implemented by former executive director Carl R. Greene. During his tenure from 1998 to 2010, Greene reduced the number of officers from 300 to 30, while increasing the ranks of security guards employed by private firms. At the time, Greene was demolishing high-rise projects and replacing them with low-rise developments laid out on street grids.

A former contracts manager for the Philadelphia Housing Authority, who is cooperating with investigators in an ongoing federal probe of the agency, was sentenced Wednesday to 50 months in prison for taking $25,000 in kickbacks. Kerri Bizzell, 43, who handled small construction contracts, pleaded guilty in May to extorting the money from two contractors. She also admitted obstructing a grand jury by trying to prevent a contractor from disclosing the payments. U.S. District Judge Mitchell S. Goldberg ordered her to repay PHA the $25,000.

No more free cars at the Philadelphia Housing Authority. One of the lasting emblems of wasteful spending at the public housing agency - the abundance of employees who had agency cars to take home and use as they pleased - has been eliminated. At one time, as many as 200 employees had "take-home" privileges for agency cars. Now, only 19 people - including the interim executive director and emergency staff - will get vehicles, said Nichole Tillman, a PHA spokeswoman. Forty employees got letters this week telling them to turn in the keys to their cars.

After successfully lobbying Harrisburg to tighten the ties between City Hall and the Philadelphia Housing Authority, Mayor Nutter now must come up with a slate of candidates to rebuild the agency's board of commissioners. On Saturday, the Senate gave a unanimous final vote of approval to a bill that will give the mayor the power to choose a nine-member board for the authority. Previously, the mayor appointed two commissioners, with the city controller nominating two more.

After successfully lobbying Harrisburg to tighten the ties between City Hall and the Philadelphia Housing Authority, Mayor Nutter now must come up with a slate of candidates to rebuild the agency's board of commissioners. On Saturday, the Senate gave a unanimous final vote of approval to a bill that will give the mayor the power to choose a nine-member board for the authority. Previously, the mayor appointed two commissioners, with the city controller nominating two more.

Two weeks after taking charge of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, the interim chief has removed two senior staffers, including a close aide to deposed Executive Director Carl R. Greene. PHA confirmed that Shelley James, Greene's former chief of staff, left the agency Friday. A lawyer, she joined PHA in 2003 and was paid $163,000 a year. Also out is Keith Caldwell, a 14-year veteran who managed 300 employees in operations and oversaw conventional public housing as well as the Section 8 rent-voucher program.