Street: HUD "Really Unrealistic" About PHA Resignations
Former Mayor John Street says he can understand why the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development called last Friday on the board of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, where he is the chairman, to resign from the scandal plagued agency. But Street says it is "really unrealistic" to think the board members would step down just because HUD issued a press release.
Street: HUD "Really Unrealistic" About PHA Resignations
Chris Brennan
Former Mayor John Street says he can understand why the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development called last Friday on the board of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, where he is the chairman, to resign from the scandal plagued agency. But Street says it is "really unrealistic" to think the board members would step down just because HUD issued a press release.
Street, visiting City Hall this morning for Mayor Nutter's budget address, said the board has had private discussions with HUD officials and understand there is pressure coming from Senate Republicans to reform PHA. The FBI and HUD's inspector general have already started probes.
"The board members firmly believe that we really haven’t done anything wrong," Street said. "We’ve done nothing that merits our being removed for cause. But in spite of all of that, most board members are open to talk to HUD about all this stuff. We know HUD has a real serious political problem in Washington. We’d like to be cooperative. But we won’t be cooperative at the complete and total expense of the board."
Asked how the process should work, Street joked that he would not say because it would give reporters a reason to skip tomorrow's PHA board meeting. One board member, City Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell resigned on Wednesday and another, Debra Brady, is said to be considering her resignation.
Comment removed.- Comment removed.
HUD needs to stop tip-toeing around these fools and step up and do the right thing for the citizens of Philadelphia, the citizens of the United States and the residents of PHA. HUD is partially to blame for this entire mess. It's up to them to make this right..starting NOW. Enough of the John Street press show. After the PHA Board meeting tomorrow, HUD should make a statement that the entire board is fired, and HUD is taking over all control of the agency. Don't let this sit another weekend. The longer HUD drags its feet, the worse they look.— Chr- At this rate, Mr. Street needs a conviction, not just an indictment, to cement his self-styled image as a victim of a some (insert propagator group) conspiracy. I truly think he believes that Carl Greene's historical propensity for assorted whatnot, is really the fault of the incoming republican state house administration. He is, pure and simple, a peach.— bobcitydoc
- Once a scumbag, always a scumbag. He and his brother should share a cell.— richojr
- For the first time in decades, the money for housing went into housing. The mismanagement and corruption is in the mistreatment of employees as sex industry call girls and NOT the spending of monies on public housing. If anything, more taxes should be collected from the wealthy, not cut backs in domestic spending which is not even 5% of the economy. The board needs to resign, because of the mismanagement and poor oversight of the director, which is criminal, in hist extortion schemes for sex from the female staff, and skimming of kick backed wages, masquerading as some sort of help the ghetto fund raiser.— Fernando08
The entire board of PHA needs to resign post haste. Their lack of oversight allowed Greene to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix sexual harassment cases, spend money inappropriately on staff parties and perks, and provided no oversight or governance to PHA. The board is morally bankrupt and HUD is right in requesting they resign. If they fail to do so, HUD should bring charges of malfeasance against all remaining board members.— bling
Street is upset that he is losting his fun money by being board director. How much $100K?- Today the head of the London School of Economics resigned because two years ago, on his watch, the school accepted a donation from the son of Moammar Qaddaif. He said that in accepting the donation he had brought disrepute to the school, so he resigned. No hint that he benefitted personally in any way, it just happened that the donation came from an alumni who has proved, after the fact, to be the kind of person one doesn't want to associate with.
If Street had a shred of decency and shame about him, he would resign. Of course he has neither; he is one of those public figures, like Fumo and Rendell, who doesn't have even basic decency and responsibility. Can you imagine anyone in America resigning when they inadvertently or deliberately did something that cast the shadow of dishonor on them?— farhorizons - I truly believe that Street doesn't think he did anything wrong. His work day probably consisted of arriving to work at 10:30 am, schedule a lunch through his secretary for noon, show back up to work at 3:30 and then try and beat traffic by leaving just after four. He really had no clue. In his mind it really might be a set up and he figures that anyone can do his job so it might as well be him.— BentLogic
- Not only has the board done nothing wrong...They did nothing when lots of money was spent by the former head and did nothing..so Street is correct...he did nothing.....— STEVE5444
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David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics – which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com
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Jan Ransom, a native New Yorker, joined the Daily News in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. She has since written about the difficulty of filing police complaints, tax deadbeats and life after violent home invasions. She joined the Daily News City Hall Bureau in 2011 and has plunged headfirst into reporting on administration budget battles and City Council shenanigans. E-mail tips to ransomj@phillynews.com
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Sean Collins Walsh is from Bucks County and went to Northwestern University. He joined the Daily News copy desk in 2012 and now covers the Nutter administration. Before that, he interned at papers including The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News and The Seattle Times. E-mail tips to walshSE@phillynews.com
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