email this
print this
reprint or license thisSAVE AND SHARE
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Housing authority asks court to bar HUD cutoff of $50M program
The Philadelphia Housing Authority last week asked a federal judge to issue an injunction to stop HUD from terminating a $50 million PHA program set to expire March 31.
The program gives housing authorities more flexibility in how they use federal funds.
PHA's court filing said loss of the money would "wreak havoc" on the agency and its 84,000 residents.
In a court filing yesterday, HUD said that such an injunction would require a federal judge to write a contract and compel HUD to perform under it, powers it said the court lacks.
The latest round of legal maneuvering in the dispute comes amid stepped-up pressure on HUD from U.S. Sens. Arlen Specter and Bob Casey to resolve the issue out of court.
The authority contends that HUD wants to strip the money because PHA's executive director, Carl Greene, refused a request in 2006 by HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson to transfer $2 million worth of city property to music-producer-turned-developer Kenny Gamble.
HUD denies that and says that the flex-funds program was in jeopardy because PHA is in violation of rules that require it to make at least 5 percent of its housing units accessible to disabled residents.
During Senate hearings earlier this month, Casey and Specter questioned Jackson about e-mails that were exchanged by two of Jackson's top deputies suggesting that they sought to punish Greene by threatening PHA's funding.
Jackson told Specter he had learned about the e-mails only days earlier and refused to answer questions about his role in the redevelopment deal.
The Senate unanimously agreed on March 13 to a resolution offered by Specter and Casey asking that PHA be granted a one-year extension of its flex-funds agreement with HUD.
The senators sent Jackson a letter on Friday expressing their disappointment that Jackson had denied their request.
The letter came in response to a March 19 letter from one of Jackson's top deputies that HUD renews the flex-funds agreements only on a 10-year basis.
The senators noted in their letter that HUD routinely agrees to short-term renewals and that last August it gave the Minneapolis Housing Authority an eight-month extension.
PHA's residents "should not suffer due to a bureaucratic dispute," the senators wrote. *
