Hits Keep Coming For The PHA
Philadelphia's embattled Housing Authority had another rocky week but help may be on the way.
The PHA is funded mostly with federal tax dollars and controls lower-income housing for about 80,000 people in the city of Philadelphia. The PHA has more than 1,000 workers and an annual $347 million budget.
But while the agency's goal is to make Philadelphia a better place, the agency and its locally appointed board have made headlines for a scandal involving former executive director Carl Greene.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported last week that Greene's attorney is asking for $4 million after Greene's contract was terminated by the PHA board.
Greene is suing the PHA, alleging breach of contract and violation of his due process rights.
The PHA board has retained the noted Philadelphia attorney, Richard Sprague, in the case, and board chairman John Street, the former mayor, was highly amused by Greene's demands, said the Inquirer.
A new and separate lawsuit alleges that public housing workers in Philadelphia were forced to pay for a training course but their money was spent on lobbying and social events instead.
That class-action lawsuit was filed Friday and claims 926 landlords in a subsidized housing program paid $200 each for a mandatory one-day course on being a good landlord.
The lawsuit names the PHA, former PHA head Greene and others, and says none of the money was spent on instruction.
But the PHA has selected a temporary replacement for Greene, whom it fired last month following a series of sexual harassment allegations.
Michael Kelly was the general manager of the New York City Housing Authority. Kelly will take leave from that job to work at PHA.
Kelly was responsible an operation that was much bigger than the one in Philadelphia. New York City Housing Authority has 178,000 residential units, with 11,000 employees and a budget of $3.4 billion dollars in federal, state and local assistance in New York.
HUD actually asked New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to send Kelly to Philadelphia.
"HUD has requested the interim installment of the General Manager of the New York City Housing Authority, Michael Kelly as Executive Director of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, and we have agreed to assist HUD and our sister-city,” said Bloomberg.
What is unknown is how long Kelly will stay at the PHA and under what terms.
Kelly arrives as HUD is investigating the Greene regime at the PHA, and former mayor Street and current mayor Michael Nutter seem at odds over the PHA board.