Breaking News:
Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell just announced her resignation from the board of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, several days after the Department of Housing and Urban Development called on the agency's five board members to step down.
HUD publicly called on the board - who oversaw the agency as former Executive Director Carl Greene allegedly secretly settled three sexual harassment lawsuits against him - to quit. So far Blackwell is the only board member to respond to the request.
"HUD's interest and my interest are the same," Blackwell said. "That is to not have any of the tenants hurt in any way."
Blackwell told reporters that eventually she hopes to return to the board, sometime after the current controversy has passed. She also said she had no regrets about Greene's tenure at the agency. "Carl Greene was a visionary," she said.
The five member board is headed by former Mayor John Street. Other appointees are labor leader Pat Eiding; Deborah Brady, the wife of U.S. Rep. Bob Brady; and tenant representative Nellie Reynolds.
Blackwell's term as a mayoral appointee on the board has expired, but Mayor Nutter, who did not appoint her, had not publicly sought to remove or replace the Councilwoman.