PHA board steps down; HUD steps in

THE HANDWRITING was emblazoned on the wall.

It was only a matter of time before federal officials took control of the beleaguered Philadelphia Housing Authority and booted its board of commissioners.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development gave the board, led by former Mayor John Street, little choice: Go down with a fight or exit gracefully.

Yesterday, moments after Street said the board would step down and temporarily cede power to HUD, Street vigorously shook hands with HUD Deputy Secretary Ron Sims and the two men hugged.

"Life isn't always fair, and we have to accept the good with the bad," Street said. "It's really time for us to go."

The board agreed to a "voluntary takeover" of the agency after getting several commitments from HUD designed to protect the interests of PHA's 80,000 tenants and 1,400 employees:

* Estelle Richman, a longtime Philadelphia advocate and Street ally, will act in the board's place. Richman, who is HUD's chief operating officer and was Street's managing director when he was mayor, was named PHA's "special master." Richman will work closely with PHA interim executive director Michael Kelly.

* Longtime board member and PHA tenant Nellie Reynolds, 81, will serve as a liaison between residents and PHA's new leadership.

* HUD will honor recently inked contract agreements with PHA's unionized workers.

* The takeover will expire in one year, though HUD has the option to renew control in one-year increments. In a year, PHA could regain control under a new board.

"This works for everybody, and I couldn't be happier," Street said.

Sims now has full power over PHA's day-to-day operations, including its finances and personnel.

The board fired former Executive Director Carl Greene in September after learning that he had secretly settled three sexual-harassment claims against him and was negotiating a fourth. It was then that HUD began to investigate PHA's finances.

City Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell was the only PHA board member to vote against Greene's ousting.

Blackwell broke ranks with the board again Wednesday when she resigned, apparently dissing a tentative agreement among board members that they would remain unified in their decision to stay or go.

Besides Street, Reynolds and Blackwell, the other board members who resigned were Patrick Eiding, president of the Philadelphia council of the AFL-CIO, and Debra Brady, executive director of Philadelphia Writ Services and the wife of U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, head of the city's Democratic Party.

Eiding was the last holdout. He said he didn't agree to step down until late Thursday night, after he and Street traveled to Washington to meet with Sims.

"I was faced with holding my pride to the wall or talking," Eiding said. "We came to an agreement that was good for PHA, its tenants and workers."

Mayor Nutter, who attended yesterday's news conference, stood alongside Street - his predecessor and antagonist - and thanked him and other board members for their "service and commitment."

Then Nutter declared, "It is now a new day at PHA."

Afterward, Nutter said he'd been in constant communication with HUD leaders ever since the scandal surrounding Greene first broke in August.

"I knew at some point in time we were going to get to this day," Nutter said.