Cisneros

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry G. Cisneros said yesterday that he is working with Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke to see that Baltimore spends millions of dollars that have been earmarked for its revitalization projects.Mr. Cisneros, addressing a two-day HUD community development forum at the Radisson Plaza Lord Baltimore, said he is concerned and "not satisfied" with the way housing officials in Baltimore -- and other U.S. cities -- have failed to spend federal money on projects to rejuvenate urban areas.

WASHINGTON -- While all is not well in America's cities, the Department of Housing and Urban Development is working successfully with urban communities to stem their downhill slide, HUD Secretary Henry G. Cisneros said yesterday.Empowerment zones designed to revive inner-city economies, the move to tear down dilapidated public housing projects and programs to encourage homeownership in urban areas should be expanded, he said. His election-year speech was billed as the first "State of America's Communities" address.

AS HENRY CISNEROS prepares to leave the Department of Housing and Urban Development, he is hearing lots of praise. One enthusiastic academic even describes him as the best housing secretary the nation has ever had.Baltimore was helped by Mr. Cisneros' performance. He changed the often silly and impractical rules by which HUD had operated. He innovated, simplified, realigned and cut back. Things that had seemed impossible to do -- like demolishing Baltimore's troubled Lafayette Courts and Lexington Terrace high-rise projects along with a total 23,000 problematic units nationwide -- suddenly happened.

U.S. Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros said yesterday he will not halt a plan to move hundreds of Baltimore public housing families into the suburbs, but he hopes to add safeguards to limit the potential burden on counties.Those safeguards could include the suggestions of county leaders, who have stressed the need for carefully selecting communities where tenants would move and for providing counseling and job training.But the secretary made it clear that he would not stop the move altogether, as Baltimore County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger III, for one, would like.

DEAR SECRETARY CISNEROS,Whether or not your scheduled address before the Maryland Association of Counties in Annapolis today centers on a housing controversy in the Baltimore region, that dispute will be foremost on the minds of a portion of the conference attendees.No doubt you're aware of the history: As Baltimore was imploding the high-rises that have failed as "safe, secure and decent" subsidized dwellings, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the city to break the concentration of poor blacks in the urban core.

WASHINGTON -- After more than 10 years and $21 million spent investigating former Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros, the last independent counsel from the Clinton era officially ended his probe yesterday, complaining that he needed more time to unravel what might have been a major "cover-up at high levels of our government." "It would not be unreasonable to conclude as I have that there was a cover-up, and it appears to have been substantial and coordinated," said David M. Barrett, a former Republican lawyer who was appointed in 1995 to investigate Cisneros, a Democrat.

WASHINGTON -- After 30 months and $4 million, the special prosecutor investigating misstatements by Henry G. Cisneros has expanded the scope of his probe, brought felony charges against Cisneros' former mistress and members of her family -- and may now be targeting the White House itself.In so doing, the special prosecutor, David M. Barrett, has rekindled a debate over the independent counsel law, notably the ease with which such prosecutors can turn small investigations into big ones, and whether they are exceeding the authority intended by Congress.

WASHINGTON -- Former Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros, expressing faith in "the inherent fairness" of the judicial system, pleaded innocent yesterday to charges he conspired to lie to FBI agents about payments he made to a former mistress.Three co-defendants entered similar pleas. U.S. District Judge Stanley Sporkin set trial for Nov. 4 after all four waived their rights to an earlier date.Brendan V. Sullivan Jr., Cisneros' Washington lawyer, said he needed time to file "substantial" pretrial motions, foreshadowing vigorous defense.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros said yesterday that a Baltimore agreement to demolish public-housing high-rises and relocate tenants in middle-income areas could be a model for other cities to follow.Mr. Cisneros announced the partial settlement of a 1995 desegregation lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland against Baltimore, its housing authority and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.The agreement would guarantee $300 million in federal funds to replace four dilapidated high-rise complexes and to house 3,200 black families, two-thirds of them in mostly white, middle-income neighborhoods.

The nation's housing chief supported in principle yesterday a proposed settlement of a desegregation lawsuit that calls for shifting 1,324 families from Baltimore's public housing to better neighborhoods mostly in the suburbs.U.S. Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros described the plan as "a responsible way" to break up the nearly all-black concentrations of poor people in inner-city housing projects.He said he hopes a decision on the agreement between the Baltimore Housing Authority and the American Civil Liberties Union can be reached in the next few days.