In the waning days of the second Bush administration, Greene's agency was at war with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which provides its funding. Greene accused HUD in federal court of unfairly stripping the authority of about $50 million in funding.

Sens. Arlen Specter and Bob Casey had to step in to mediate contentious meetings with Greene and HUD staff.

But yesterday, Greene was joined by the city's political power brokers - including both senators, Mayor Nutter, and new HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan - to celebrate PHA's progress in building affordable housing and applying stimulus money from President Obama's recovery plan.

Donovan visited the soon-to-open Warnock Village for senior citizens at Warnock and Somerset Streets in North Philadelphia. He took particular note of features to make the 45-unit apartment house energy-efficient, including a green rooftop to absorb storm water and lower utility costs.

Referring to PHA's recent showdown with his agency, Donovan told a crowd of more than 200 people: "Carl, you're not going to have to fight me for $50 million."

Specter, who cast a deciding vote in the passage of the president's recovery plan, said Obama "understands the real problems of American cities."

He noted that Pennsylvania has received $18 billion in stimulus money. Of that, PHA will get an extra $126 million over several years from HUD - more than twice its current capital budget. About $100 million of that has been awarded for projects ranging from the renovation of 300 abandoned properties to new developments with more than 375 units of housing.

Some of the recovery funds are going into making public housing more energy-efficient, Greene said.

"We're doing what we can to control the cost of energy," Greene said.

After finishing at Warnock and Somerset, Donovan traveled to the other side of Broad Street to tour projects in North Philadelphia to house the homeless that were developed by the nonprofit group Project HOME.

Between PHA and social-service agencies such as Project HOME, Philadelphia has much to showcase, Nutter said.

"I've continued to make the case in Washington that Philadelphia is an incubator of innovation," Nutter said.