Philadelphia Housing Authority boss having his own housing problems

The head of the Philadelphia Housing Authority is having difficulty paying his mortgage.

According to court documents, Wells Fargo Bank has started foreclosure proceedings against Carl R. Greene, PHA executive director, over his pricey Naval Square condo.

Greene's salary this year was $306,370, with a bonus of $44,188. He bought the 2,100-square foot condo in the Naval Square development in 2007 for $615,035, according to city records.

Greene was unavailable for comment last night, but PHA spokesman Kirk Dorn confirmed that Greene is having mortgage problems.

"Mr. Greene is involved in a dispute with his mortgage company," Dorn said. "It's unfortunate that the dispute is now public. But he plans to deal with the matter in private."

Wells Fargo is represented by Phelan, Hallinan & Schmieg, a Center City law firm that specializes in representing mortgage bankers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. No one at the firm could be reached last night.

Greene is scheduled to have a conciliation conference Sept. 16 to try to resolve the mortgage issues in a City Hall courtroom, according to court listings. The city's mortgage-foreclosure program requires lenders to attempt to negotiate with homeowners before a foreclosed property can go to sheriff's sale.

Greene has served since 1998 as executive director of PHA, a public, federally funded housing agency. He has torn down high-rises and built housing that fits into the city's rowhouse neighborhoods.

Before coming to Philadelphia, Greene served as executive director of the Detroit Housing Commission, and before that he held management positions with the housing authorities in Washington and Atlanta.

Greene's residence is off Grays Ferry Avenue in the city's Schuylkill section, at the Naval Square complex. It's a gated community developed by Toll Brothers at the site of the early-19th-century Naval Home, designed in 1826 by architect William Strickland. It was the first home of the U.S. Naval Academy and the nation's first retirement home for sailors and marines. The site, a National Historic Landmark, includes former residences of the governor and the surgeon general.

Homeowners at the complex, according to its Web site, "will enjoy access to a full roster of amenities including sprawling 20-acre parade grounds and the community center located in the soaring rotunda of Biddle Hall, the community's flagship building."

Staff writer Wendy Ruderman contributed to this report.