Officials this week held a ribbon cutting, opening a new $38.8 million, 100-unit housing development in Southwest Philadelphia — hailing the new Paschall Village as the key to revitalizing the neighborhood.

“This is not about bricks and mortar; it’s about souls and lives,” said state Sen. Anthony Williams, at Wednesday’s ribbon cutting.

The new homes, built by the Philadelphia Housing Authority between Paschall and Woodland Avenue at 72nd Street, boast a number of green and sustainable features including: geothermal heating and cooling, solar hot water, solar panels, a rainwater irrigation system and ENERGY STAR appliances.

But, Williams and the other speakers hailed the development not so much for its architecture, cutting edge technology or amenities — but for its power to transform the surrounding neighborhood of Southwest Philly. The new village replaced a barracks-like slab of a housing project, built in 1966, that was renowned as a hub of crime until it was demolished in 2009.

“It was an antiquated, drug- and crime-infested area,” remembered Council president Anna C. Verna, who represents the Southwest, adding that the old 223-unit project riddled with courtyards and narrow alleys made a perfect hideout for criminals — and particularly dangerous for police.

In the months before the old complex was torn down, between January and April 2009, police said there were 11 murders and 15 rapes within a half-mile of the complex. It was so notorious for drug activity that in 2006 federal agents descended on the complex and arrested 22 people.

There was no evidence of that history this week.

The new houses are laid out in several neat rows and a new street, an extension of Saybrook Avenue, divided the block. At the corner of 72nd and Paschall, a new 4,000 square-foot community center, complete with computer center, anchored the village. New street lights and trees lined the streets.

Verna hoped the new homes will provide the catalyst for change.

“I see today as a great opportunity,” she said. “This is just the beginning.”

Williams, who lives just a few miles from the development, had even stronger words for new residents, and exhorted his new neighbors to resist letting the development again become a safe harbor for drugs and crime.

“We have a beginning here. I want us — the people, the neighbors — to reclaim our dignity, our humanity, our compassion,” he said, adding that new residents needed to tell anyone inclined to push the neighborhood backwards: “You’re not bringing that drama back to my neighborhood.”

The new complex has 12 one-bedroom, 52 two-bedroom and 36 three-bedroom units and 20 handicapped accessible units. All have off-street parking.

“The housing authority has come through again,” said resident liaison Nellie Reynolds. “But, you have to make it a home. We can’t do that for you. Do it with pride. Do it with love.”

The development has already won the 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania Award — and PHA director Michael Kelly expects it to win more.

“It is a shining example of PHA’s commitment to building green, energy-efficient, sustainable developments,” Kelly said. “We intend to be a leader and set an example in this field.”

Last month, PHA opened another green development, Mantua Court, in West Philadelphia. The $28.1 million, 101-unit public housing development replaced Mantua Hall, a notorious 18-story tower at 35th Street and Fairmount Avenue.

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African Americans could benefit from the Philadelphia Housing Authority’s recent decision to end its practice of hiring provisional workers.

While Interim Director Kelvin Jeremiah made it clear that the decision to eliminate the practice was purely financial, it could pry open the city’s trade unions to Black workers — largely because Jeremiah plans to enforce the agency’s requirement that employees live in the city.

“I am mindful of the fact that by having the requirement that we have … and that by so doing we could have more African Americans, Blacks and browns, minorities getting union positions in the city. I think that’s an added benefit,” said Jeremiah.

Despite the possibility of pressure from the city’s politically influential trade unions, Jeremiah said he would rigorously enforce the residency requirement.

“The requirement for residency is not one I’m willing to waive,” he said, adding that provisional workers who choose to make the change to permanent PHA employees would be given six months to move into the city.

“If they, for whatever reason, choose not to, that means they will not be a PHA employee,” he said.

Earlier this week, Jeremiah told the Tribune that he planned to lay off 335 provisional workers. They are union workers initially hired on a temporary basis, some of whom, under former director Carle Greene, stayed as long as a decade. They will all be laid off effective Sept. 1. \

According to Jeremiah, 225 may then be rehired as permanent PHA employees, provided they meet PHA standards — which includes the residency requirement. Though he lacked hard numbers, Jeremiah estimated that roughly 50 percent of them lived outside the city limits.

Whether the move will actually open union ranks to African Americans remains to be seen.

Provisional employees who are laid off on Sept. 1 will have the opportunity to return to their jobs as in-house employees at PHA.

“So, it depends on what the unions want to do with replacing those guys,” he said. “We want to work with them. Our job is not to destroy the unions.”

Jeremiah said most of the city’s trade unions have been open to the change, realizing that PHA could not continue to pay the roughly $10 million extra in benefit costs caused by the arrangement.

So far, Jeremiah said, the majority of the city’s trade unions have embraced the idea, with the exception of the carpenters’ union — the Metropolitan Regional Council of Carpenters

of Philadelphia & Vicinity.

“They want to see if [I] will go ahead and lay off 335 employees,” he said. “I would bet on … me.”

Carpenters union business manager Edward C. Coryell did not return several calls this week seeking comment. Sam Staten Jr., president of the Laborer’s Union, Local 332, could not be reached for comment either.

“With the other unions, I was amazed,” said Jeremiah. “I surprised by the willingness of the union leadership to cooperate. They understand the impact on the agency.

The plan, part of a larger reform agenda, has the support of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“We know that change doesn’t sit well with everyone,” said HUD spokesman Jerry Brown. “But, the things that we’ve seen have been fair thus far. There has to be changes made to the PHA, that’s why it’s under receivership, to right the ship.”

The move to eliminate provisional workers will allow the agency to cut its benefit costs, in most cases by as much as 49 percent.

As an example, Jeremiah pointed to the agreement with the carpenters’ union, where, between April 2011 and April 2012, 21 “in-house” carpenters cost PHA $1.3 million in wages and an additional $547,000 in benefits — a 42 percent wage to benefit ratio. For 91 provisional carpenters, the agency paid out a $6.1 million in wages and $5.4 million in benefits — a ratio of 89.2 percent. Those additional benefit costs were paid directly to the unions.

By converting those employees from provisional to in-house, PHA stands to save about $3 million annually.

In total, PHA has spent $28 million over the last year on provisional employees — $15 million in wages and $13 million in benefits. The total savings in converting them to in-house employees is expected to be around $10 million annually.

In the late 1990s, Greene apparently reached a deal with the city’s major trade unions that established the practice of using provisional employees to bolster PHA staff for short periods when extra help was needed.

“Greene had some arrangements with the various unions, to provide laborers … to come to PHA in an effort to augment PHA staff,” Jeremiah said. “The benefit was that we would have skilled laborers working at PHA.”

However, the concept was soon perverted. It remained in place under Greene’s successor Michael Kelly, who left the agency in June under the cloud of his own scandal.

Jeremiah said the move was just a part of a larger reform agenda he would be implementing over the next few months.

“PHA has had a culture of splurge, of excess,” he said. “I’m going to [cut] across the agency until I’m confident that we’re not wasteful in the resources that we have.”

Contact staff writer Eric Mayes at (215) 893-5742 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

While slain civil rights leader Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. often dreamed that his nonviolent crusade would lead to racial equality, he also envisioned the arrival of housing and economic fairness that would lead the downtrodden out of sub-human living conditions.

If alive to see the transformation of the decrepit Hawthorne Square housing project and its immediate surroundings, King himself would be proud.

That was the overriding sentiment when city and housing officials on Wednesday unveiled a plaque at 13th and Fitzwater streets, renaming the vicinity Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza. Symbolically, the renaming of the plaza brings to a close at least one of the chapters of public housing in the city; planners decided to name the new plaza after King to memorialize his famous visit here in 1965, when he addressed hundreds of Hawthorne residents and demanded fair and equal housing for them.

“We continue to feel the ripple effects of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which was a direct result” of King’s work in that arena, said Philadelphia Housing Authority Commissioner Karen Newton Cole. “So it is really important that, moving forward, we commemorate what Martin Luther King did, especially as it relates to housing.”

King visited what was then known as Hawthorne Square for a two-day visit, August 2–3, 1965, and more than an estimated 2,300 people gathered on that corner to hear him speak. In 1970, longtime politician James Tayoun — then the councilman for the district that included Hawthorne Square — petitioned PHA to change its name. Tayoun was also one of the earlier supporters of King’s visit to Philadelphia — a notion that wasn’t all too popular at the time.

“We are standing on hallowed ground,” the veteran politician said, joining the ranks of Council members Jannie Blackwell and Kenyatta Johnson — who grew up in the neighborhood — who made stirring remarks about the neighborhood’s transformation. “It’s hallowed because I remember the faces of the young men and women who died here because they couldn’t get affordable housing. It’s my pleasure to have a small part in his role here.”

PHA Administrative Receiver and Executive Director Michael P. Kelly echoed the sentiment of many when he said that Dr. King, “on this spot, held a rally that addressed economic injustice and housing for the poor. Those ideas are still valid today.”

The negative impact of the housing policy to warehouse the very poor in high-rise dwellings that lack the necessary social infrastructure cannot be overstated. Dr. William Tucker, president of the Philadelphia MLK Center for Nonviolence said King should be commended for bringing attention to the housing disparity, noting that the late leader spoke out when authorities began “substituting horizontal slums with vertical slums,” Tucker said. “Now, Philadelphia is ahead of the curve in eliminating housing projects.”

Mayor Nutter, Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers and a host of other city and state politicians also praised the works of King. The dedication also commemorates the 40th anniversary of his assassination.

MLK Plaza joins Martin Luther King Jr. Drive as two of the city’s most prominent renaming initiatives, and joins a nationwide trend of cities embracing King with major renaming moves. CNN reported that more than 900 cities have streets named after King, and Memphis, Tennessee — where King was slain while on the balcony of a downtown hotel — is finally dealing with its past and renaming a one-mile stretch of Linden Avenue in King’s honor.

Departing, Blackwell was reminded of King’s overriding compassion.

“Nothing is more important when we think of Dr. Martin Luther King than love,” Blackwell said. “During a time when people were deathly afraid, King stood up for them, and loved them.”

Contact staff writer Damon C. Williams at (215) 893-5745 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

In a move that is expected to save the embattled Philadelphia Housing Authority roughly $10 million a year — and slaughter a cash cow for some of the city’s powerful trade unions — the agency’s interim director is eliminating the PHA practice of hiring “provisional employees.”

“I recognize that it’s going to make a lot of people uncomfortable. I understand that,” said Kelvin Jeremiah, interim director of PHA. “But, I remain undeterred. For me to continue to do that would have been derelict, financial suicide.”

Jeremiah told The Tribune in an exclusive interview Wednesday morning that he planned to eliminate the longtime agency hiring practice of using provisional employees, intended to be temporary, who were then allowed to stay on for years, more than doubling PHA’s benefit costs.

Under current practice, employees hired to work at PHA, some for periods as short as three months, have stayed for more than 10 years.

“It’s unheard of,” said Jeremiah.

At the moment, the PHA has 335 provisional employees, but they will all be laid off effective Sept. 1. According to Jeremiah, 225 may then be rehired as permanent PHA employees, provided they meet PHA hiring standards — which includes a requirement that they reside in the city, a move that will allow the agency to cut its benefit costs by as much as 49 percent for that group.

As an example, Jeremiah pointed to the agreement with the carpenters’ union where between April 2011 and April 2012, its 21 “in-house” carpenters cost PHA $1.3 million in wages and an additional $547,000 in benefits — a 40 percent wage to benefit ratio. For 91 provisional carpenters, the agency paid out $6.1 million in wages and $5.4 million in benefits — a wage to benefit ratio of 89.2 percent. Those additional benefit costs were paid directly to the unions.

By converting those employees from provisional to in-house, PHA stands to save about $3 million annually.

In total, PHA has spent $28 million over the last year on provisional employees — $15 million in wages and $13 million in benefits. The total savings in converting them to in-house employees is expected to be around $10 million annually.

So far, Jeremiah said, the majority of the city’s trade unions have embraced the idea, with the exception of the carpenters’ union — the Metropolitan Regional Council of Carpenters 

of Philadelphia & Vicinity.

“They want to see if [I] will go ahead and lay off 335 employees,” he said. “I would bet on … me.”

Carpenters union business manager Edward C. Coryell could not be reached for immediate comment on Wednesday.

“With the other unions, I was amazed,” said Jeremiah. “I was surprised by the willingness of the union leadership to cooperate. They understand the impact on the agency.

Jeremiah said he was uncertain exactly when the practice of allowing provisional employees to linger on the payroll started, but he estimated that it was at least 10 years ago, during the reign of former housing czar Carl Greene, who was fired two years ago amid a far ranging sex and financial scandal that is still playing out in court.

In the late 1990s, Greene apparently reached a deal with the city’s major trade unions that established the practice of using provisional employees to bolster PHA staff for short periods when extra help was needed.

“Greene had some arrangements with the various unions, to provide laborers … to come to PHA in an effort to augment PHA staff,” said Jeremiah. “The benefit was that we would have skilled laborers working at PHA.”

However, as with many other practices under Greene, the concept was soon perverted. It remained in place under Greene’s successor Michael Kelly, who left the agency in June under the cloud of his own scandal.

Jeremiah said the move was just a part of a larger reform agenda he would be implementing over the next few months.

“PHA has had a culture of splurge, of excess,” he said. “I’m going to [cut] across the agency until I’m confident that we’re not wasteful in the resources that we have.”

To comment, contact staff writer Eric Mayes at 215-893-5742 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Michael P. Kelly, administrative receiver of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, resigned Friday, which he said is due to family responsibilities.

“Franky, I’ve been thinking about this for a while,” Kelly told the Tribune Friday afternoon. “Believe me, it has nothing to do with politics, or with the public officials and the citizens of Philadelphia. Mayor Nutter has been very gracious, and I’ve had positive experiences with city council. I’m thankful for my time here in Philadelphia, and I’m grateful for the opportunity. The Tribune has been especially gracious and fair with us, and I really appreciate the support we’ve gotten from the community.”

Pressed on the reason for his resignation, Kelly said he won’t elaborate, but promises more information next week.

“It really was a personal, painful decision for family reasons,” he said. “I know that sounds like a typical politician’s line, but it happens to be true.”

Karen Newton-Cole of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development accepted Kelly’s resignation Friday during the monthly board meeting.

Additionally, HUD announced that Estelle Richman, a senior adviser to the HUD secretary, would replace Cole and return to her role as the one-person authority board commissioner and receiver. Richman served as the PHA board when HUD took control over the agency last year.

“It has been my pleasure to serve you as the commissioner of the Philadelphia Housing Authority,” Cole said.

Kelvin Jeremiah, PHA’s current director of audit and compliance, was appointed by Cole to be the provisional executive director of PHA. Janea Jordan will have Jeremiah’s position.

“We are going to launch a national search in terms of identifying an executive director,” Cole said.  

While at the helm of PHA, Kelly was credited for many sweeping reforms. He re-established the Office of General Counsel — which manages PHA’s legal affairs, and he created the Office of Internal Audit and Compliance to ensure business transitions were compliant.

Kelly headed PHA’s Transition Plan — which aims to establish a culture of respect, accountability and transparency at the agency. A zero tolerance policy was instituted, and employees were held to new ethic policies and procedures.

Under Kelly, PHA reached a new contract agreement with Building and Construction Trades Council regarding workers pensions. He is also given credit to his ability to maintain focus and provide uninterrupted service at PHA during the Greene controversy.

In 2008, accusations of sexual harassment against PHA director Carl Greene surfaced. Greene was fired in September 2010 after the board of directors discovered that Greene used approximately $900,000 of federal funding for multiple harassment settlements.

Using his architecture, urban planning and 30-year housing authority experience from other cities like San Francisco, New Orleans and Washington, D.C., Kelly arrived to PHA in December of 2010 in the midst of the internal turmoil.

As the interim executive director, Kelly was on loan to PHA from the New York City Housing Authority, based on agreements that he serve both roles while maintaining duties as general manger of NYCHA. It wasn’t until August 2011 that Kelly was named permanent executive director at PHA.

HUD asked the five-member PHA board to quit, thus gaining control of the agency. Philadelphia City Council member Jannie Blackwell, Philadelphia AFL-CIO President Pat Eiding, Debra Brady, wife of U.S. Rep. Bob Brady (D., Pa.), tenant leader Nellie Reynolds, and former Philadelphia mayor John Street eventually stepped down from the board.

“Mr. Kelly came to PHA at a very difficult time and he immediately focused on getting back to basics in property management and resident services and making PHA accountable and transparent in business practices,” Richman said in a press release. “We will miss his energy and his ability to connect with the community.”

“I do love this work,” Kelly said. “I do love this housing authority. I do love the residents that I have been honored to serve. I love the colleagues that I had an honor to serve with.”

Roy Washington has been living in limbo for the last several months — blind, facing eviction, and unable to afford the costs associated with moving — he is caught in a financial trap and sees no way out.

“This is more hardship than I’ve been through in many years,” he said. “The clock is running, and I don’t have nobody to help me. I’m going to be in the street. It scares me to death.”

Tightening budgets at both the state and federal level mean that programs that might have once helped someone in Washington’s situation are no longer a choice.

“I call a lot of those numbers, and they don’t have no funding,” he said.

Washington lives in a moderately sized two-bedroom apartment on North 52nd Street in West Philadelphia. His primary form of entertainment is a gospel radio station that plays softly in the background of his dimly lit apartment.

He has called the unit his home since 2001. It is convenient to his medical doctor, podiatrist and eye doctor. His church and library are within easy reach.

“It’s all within traveling on public transportation,” he said. “My church is out here, and my children are here.”

But in early February the property’s owner — a real estate company called T.J. Properties, Inc., notified the 60-year-old that he had 90 days to vacate. He must be out by May 1.

Though he knew from previous notices that he would have to move, the final news turned Washington’s world upside down.

“I’ve been running around like a chicken with my head cut off,” he said.

He has a helper to assist him in reading the correspondence involved in setting up the move, but Washington said a representative from T.J. Properties visited his apartment repeatedly in an effort to get him to sign papers agreeing to accept $1,200 in relocation assistance.

Company representatives promised Washington he would get help with moving expenses, and that they would assist him in finding a similar apartment.

According to Washington, they pressured him into signing papers without letting him first have his housing counselor look at them.

“When she first came up here, she told me that we’re going to be relocated and that HUD would take care of everything,” he said. “Then she started coming up here asking me to sign these papers, but I told her that I had a housing counselor and I wanted her to look at the papers. It was too much for me. I couldn’t see it.”

The representative persisted.

“She kept coming and saying that if I didn’t sign the paper, when everybody got to moving that I would basically be out in the cold,” he said. “She kept pressuring me.”

Officials with T.J. Properties did not return phone calls seeking their version of events.

Ultimately, Washington signed the papers — agreeing to accept $1,200 in moving expenses.

That figure does not include money to cover a security deposit for a new place, which means that Washington is also now faced with having to pay for a security deposit, something he has no money to do.

Washington lives on $685 a month in Social Security benefits.

His rent is $656 a month — he receives $464 in Section 8 subsidies from the federal government and pays $192 a month from his own pocket. He also receives food stamps.

There is little money left for large expenses.

Unfortunately, there are few places Washington can turn for help.

Though his Section 8 voucher is administered through the Philadelphia Housing Authority, the lease is strictly between Washington and T.J. Properties. PHA merely certifies certain aspects of the transaction — verifying a Section 8 participant’s income, and certifying that the landlord and their property meets certain standards.

Beyond that, the finances of any lease are a private affair between landlord and tenant.

The landlord can end the agreement at any time, said Keith Caldwell, executive general manager of operations with PHA, typically with as little as 30 days notice.

In this case, T.J. Properties did more for Washington that it had too.

“In this particular case, the landlord notified residents that he was going to modernize the development,” Caldwell said. “He has the right to do that. This landlord took it a step further, and said I’m going to give everyone a relocation allowance. That is not required.”

All that’s required is the $1,200 agreed upon — and the return of Washington’s security deposit.

Section 8 will continue to subsidize Washington’s rent, provided he moves to a property that meets program requirements.

“When a contract is terminated, the tenant is issued a voucher, a transfer voucher,” said Caldwell. “And, they have to commence a housing search.”

A transfer voucher covers only rent for a new home.

“We don’t provide any security deposit, any kind of relocation expenses. We don’t do any of that,” Caldwell said. “The security deposit is on the tenant. The landlord is under no obligation. The housing authority is under no obligation to provide that.”

In the past, there have been programs that could assistant people like Washington, but tighter budgets mean most of them are gone.

“The city used to have organizations, but a lot of those funding streams have disappeared because the money isn’t there anymore,” said Caldwell. “The only alternative is to find a landlord who is only going to require less of a security deposit, or pay it out in installments.”

After weeks of searching, Washington has found another place, but still lacks the money for a security deposit.

So, he’s left to take his chances.

“I’m supposed to raise $1,800, $2,400? I ain’t got money like that,” Washington said.

Contact Staff Writer Eric Mayes at (215) 893-5742 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

It’s been a year since the federal takeover of the Philadelphia Housing Authority and reform efforts are nearly completed — setting the stage for a return to local control, said Michael Kelly, executive director and federal receiver.

“Things are going good,” Kelly said. “Accountability and transparency are key words.”

Kelly, who steered PHA through the darkest days of its turnaround, is in the midst of a sort of goodwill tour on the anniversary of a takeover by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Last month, the city, PHA and HUD signed a yearlong cooperation agreement that leaves the beleaguered agency under federal control — essentially Kelly and Commissioner Karen Newton-Cole — for another year.

Though the agreement has a one-year term, Kelly said it could be terminated before that, which he expects.

“I think it will be less than a year,” he said, noting that federal and internal audits of the agency are substantially complete, except for audits of legal expenses, the release of which has been blocked in court by former director Carl Greene. “Only a court can [release them] and it’s still tied up within Carl Greene’s other lawsuits as well. When that gets resolved, this other domino could probably fall.”

Greene has a wrongful termination suit pending. A judge is expected to hear it within the next three months.

PHA has undergone a radical restructuring in the 18 months since Greene’s firing in August 2010 and the subsequent resignation of the board the following spring.

Kelly ran through a list of changes that directly addressed concerns raised by the Greene scandal. PHA has created its own legal department and hired a general counsel attorney, eliminating the use of outside attorneys, a practice established by Greene.

“We are not dependent on outside counsel at this point,” he said.

It created its own human resources department. Under Greene, there wasn’t one.

An audit department has been created to conduct annual internal audits. Greene refused to open the agencies’ books.

Kelly said the housing agency has also put new procurement and contract rules and procedures in place. In addition, PHA has restructured its budgeting procedures and moved to make sure its subsidiaries are operating legitimately.

The lion’s share of reform is done, Kelly said. But, the federal government is unlikely to hand control back to the city until the investigations, audits and lawsuits that surrounded Greene are concluded, and the state has voted on a new governance proposal now in the legislature.

“We need to see how all that plays out,” he said.

As HUD looks to cede control back to the city, Kelly added that he hoped to wait until new commissioners could be trained for their new role.

“It’s not good enough just to name these folks,” he said. “It’s important to have a rigorous training period so that when the keys do get turned back, they get turned back to folks who know what their responsibilities are so the executive director can’t pull one over on them — or they can’t do things that are outside the box.”

Meanwhile, Kelly is focusing on the future, improving the quality of life for tenants and helping them prepare to enter “the real world.”

PHA, which provides housing for 80,000 people, has a waiting list of 100,000 families.

“We’ve got a responsibility to provide the tools to these families to better compete in the private market,” he said. “So that apartment is available to people who are having a tougher time competing in the private market.”

Contact staff writer Eric Mayes at (215) 893-5742 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Lawyer says he did not benefit when his dad was PHA chair

Local attorney Sharif Street did not benefit from the fact his father, former Mayor John F. Street, chaired the board of the Philadelphia Housing Authority during a period when his son billed the PHA for hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to a spokesperson for Sharif Street.

The younger Street worked at Wolf Block Schorr & Solis-Cohen during the period under investigation. The firm, which has since gone out of business, had done business long before Sharif Street joined it, said Harriet Lessy, his spokesperson.

“They had that business for many years before he was an associate there,” she said on Friday, declining to comment further.

Sharif Street left the firm in 2008 before it was dissolved.

John Street chaired the PHA board from 2004 until March when he, along with the rest of the board, resigned in the wake of the scandal that erupted after the firing of former executive director Carl Greene. The board’s resignation paved the way for a federal takeover of the agency, still under the control of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Federal investigators looking into the allegations against Greene also raised questions about John Street.

While his father was at the helm, Sharif Street billed the PHA for $700,000.

News broke Friday in The Philadelphia Inquirer that the former mayor was the subject of an investigation by the state Ethics Commission, which is probing the fact that his son’s former law firm collected millions in legal fees from the Philadelphia Housing Authority while Street chaired the board.

John Street did not respond to requests for comment from the Tribune on Friday.

He told the Inquirer that he was sure a full investigation would vindicate him.

“Hopefully, Wolf Block or PHA will make all the relevant information available so we can move on,” Street told the newspaper.

According to published reports, John Street, on at least five occasions, voted to give PHA contracts to Wolf Block Schorr & Solis-Cohen.

A report by HUD’s inspector general, released earlier this year, said the chairman’s votes constituted a conflict of interest.

In September, the Ethics Commission subpoenaed PHA billing records from Wolf Block and according to Sherry A. Swirsky, deputy general counsel for litigation with the PHA, the agency is in the process of turning them over to the state.

“It’s an ongoing series of requests,” Swirsky said, noting that not everything has been turned over to the state so far. “We’re in the process of processing everything for turn over in the near future.”

She expected that process to be wrapped up in the next week.

Ethics Commission officials requested all bills involving Sharif Street and a broader set of bills from Wolf Block between December 2004 and the end of 2007.

Officials with the Ethics Commission declined to comment on an ongoing investigation.

The commission has the authority to fine public officials who violate state ethics law and order them to pay restitution.

In addition, the commission can refer matters to state and federal prosecutors for criminal prosecution.

Contact Tribune staff writer Eric Mayes at (215) 893-5742 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

It was a sunny Tuesday morning and field evaluator Monica Pierce was walking along North Marshall Street with a measuring wheel and a clipboard full of summary reports on each parcel stretching up both sides of the street in the Ludlow section of the city.

Glancing at her clipboard, Pierce stared, puzzled at two houses numbered 1607 and 1609.

“I don’t have these properties on my records,” she said, rolling her measuring wheel along the front of the houses.

She rolled the measuring wheel along the front of the building and then, knowing the depth of each lot, multiplied for the area of each floor and then multiplied again for each of the three floors to come up with the total square footage.

It’s no surprise that records for the houses don’t exist, she said. “This area is mixed with PHA properties,” Pierce said. “We don’t always get the same reports from PHA.”

Pierce is one of 45 field evaluators on the streets of Philadelphia — the foot soldiers in a sweeping reassessment campaign as the city moves toward full valuation for the basis of its property taxes.

There are about 577,000 parcels in the city, said Chief Assessment Officer Richie McKeithen, about 426,000 of those are houses, 25,000 are condominiums. Evaluators will be going door to door until April gathering information on each parcel.

This particular stretch of North Marshall Street looks like a smile in need of a dentist.

Vacant lots leave gaps between crumbling houses, aging architectural gems, the traditional brick with buff siding of housing authority developments and sparkling new homes built by private developers.

All of which combine to make Pierce’s job a difficult one.

“We let the property tell us things about itself,” she said as she walked north, noting that one place, which appeared to be a single-family residence, had two mailboxes.

She left a flyer with several questions on the door, hoping the owner or tenant would respond with information like how many bedrooms, bathrooms and amenities such as central air conditioning the property had.

A neighbor helped Pierce by explaining that the house, which adjoined hers, was not identical. It was larger, she told Pierce but had two bathrooms rather that the two and half in her house.

Pierce made a note and continued walking.

“Usually older homeowners will talk to you,” she said.

As she talked, a maroon Crown Victoria, its stereo blasting through tinted windows, slowly circled the block for the fourth time.

“A lot of young guys want to know if I’m a cop,” she said.

Evaluators are looking for anything that makes a place stand out. At one house, a fortress-like residence with a full porch wrapped in bars, Pierce noted the for sale sign on the gate. She would probably be able to find it listed online and get very accurate information for assessment records.

Many of the houses on the street lack house numbers, which complicated Pierce’s job. Usually, it’s easy to simply fill in the blank but in one case two houses separated by one vacant lot were four digits apart.

“This is a big problem with us,” McKeithen said. “We’re trying to match a value with an address.”

Occasionally Pierce is forced to draw a quick sketch and go back to the office to piece together addresses.

“I find myself doing a lot of research,” she said, noting the more established areas of the city were easier to assess because houses were typically more uniform.

Properties are rated on a scale of 2 to 7 — with 2 being new or very well maintained and 7 being boarded up or unoccupied.

Assessors are also allowed to create their own code for special cases.

One property in the 1600 block was specially coded. Three men sat on the stoop, an air conditioning unit dangled drunkenly from a front window, but it was evident from the street that many windows along the side of the house were broken out or boarded up.

“What’s this for?” one of the men asked gruffly.

“We’re just assessing properties,” answered McKeithen.

“Let me get out of here,” said one of the three, quickly walking north.

Pierce knocked on the door of the house next door.

“He just left out of here,” said another of the men, jerking his thumb at the back of the other man as he disappeared around the corner.

“Are these PHA?” she asked.

One of the men nodded his head, affirming that it was.

Pierce moved on.

“I’ve been trying to get a sit-down with them,” said McKeithen, talking about PHA. “A lot of city agencies don’t communicate. We need to come up with a system that benefits all of us.”

At the end of the three-block stretch, Pierce had evaluated about 26 properties but had more work to do back at the office, researching PHA and other records to put together a complete picture of the area.

“The research in the office is as important as the work we do out here,” McKeithen said.

Pierce will be looking at an estimated 2,500 properties in Ludlow. She’s six weeks into her task and about halfway done.

McKeithen said the city eventually hopes to have a photograph of each property and have all of its information online. McKeithen stressed that his office’s goal to is assess each property “as fairly as possible” and noted that City Council will set the new tax rates, which determine what residents pay in property taxes, early next spring.

City officials expect full valuation to yield about 20 percent more revenue, pushing property tax revenues up to $1.2 billion from the $1 billion collected this year.

Each field evaluator carries a city identification badge. Homeowners with questions can call 311 to verify that the person at their door is from the Office of Property Assessment.

Contact staff writer Eric Mayes at (215) 893-5742 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Fifty new officers are being added to the Philadelphia Housing Authority’s police force, officials announced Thursday — more than doubling the size of the force over the next year.

The expanded force is part of a shift in the agency’s policing — a move to community policing.

“This is an initiative that we believe is responsive to the many complaints and issues that have been raised by our residents over the last few months regarding safety and security,” said the agency’s interim director, Kelvin Jeremiah. “One of the things I’ve been hearing since I came to PHA is: ‘We need more police officers. Crime is on the increase. We’re concerned about our safety.’”

With the additional officers, the total number of full-time police officers on the force will rise from 28 to 78. New officers could appear in just a few weeks.

Jeremiah said the agency expected the larger force to cost between $5 million and $6 million a year. He said that by ending contracts with three private security firms, contracted with the agency to the tune of $30 million, the agency will be able to cover those costs. In addition to expanding its police force, PHA plans to spend $8.5 million to add security cameras and access controls at its properties.

The decision to expand the force came after PHA conducted a resident survey “that was alarming to us,” Jeremiah said.

“Most folks who responded are concerned about their safety,” he said. “We have a fundamental obligation to provide for the safety and security of our residents.”

Complaints ranged from robbery, assault, and drugs to gun violence.

According to PHA Police Department Chief Ben Walton, the authority will change the way it deploys new officers.

PHA is adopting a community policing model, meaning that police officers will patrol the same areas in an effort to get to know residents — and the patterns and habits of the area they patrol — in an effort to curtail crime.

Officers will patrol all PHA developments — but with a special emphasis on Norman Blumberg Apartments, Hill Creek Apartments, Raymond Rosen Manor, Wilson Park, Westpark Plaza and Abbottsford Homes.

“We picked the five developments that have the most problems. They’ll be there every day,” he said. “That’s where the trust factor comes into play.”

Walton lauded the change, noting that PHA police officers have the same powers that city police officers do, something that private security guards lack.

“These officers will have the powers of arrest,” he said, adding that they also have greater powers when it comes to investigations.

This will also strengthen the relationship with local city police, Walton said, “We want a relationship with the residents - and the Philly PD.”

All of the new officers will be members of the housing authority’s police union. The union and the authority have been at odds for years. In April, the police union signed a new contract after years of confrontation.

The additional officers pleased union officials.

“The union is very excited about this move,” said Angela Rice-Warthen, president of the Fraternal Order of Housing Police. “We’re here to serve our residents. Our morale is up, too.”

News of the hiring was the latest of several changes announced since Jeremiah took the helm in June after former director Michael Kelly resigned in the wake of the news that he was having an affair with a subordinate.

He had followed long-time director Carl Greene, who was forced out in 2010 amid charges of financial misconduct and serial sexual harassment.

To comment, contact staff writer Eric Mayes at (215) 893-5742 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .