Housing Agency

One of the U.S. Senate's most aggressive watchdogs said Thursday he has begun an inquiry into Baltimore's public housing agency, after receiving calls and emails concerning "a wide range of allegations, including possible conflicts of interest, fraud, waste and abuse of taxpayers' monies. " Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, ranking Republican member of the Judiciary Committee, requested reams of documents from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees housing authorities around the country and steers millions of dollars a year to Baltimore.

A North Carolina nonprofit group launched an ambitious affordable housing program Friday to rehabilitate 500 vacant or foreclosed homes in Baltimore near Johns Hopkins Hospital — an area with desolate stretches in the shadow of the world-renowned institution that the city has long sought to redevelop. Builders of Hope and its partners announced plans to invest up to $50 million in Baltimore and Atlanta in a pilot program to repopulate blighted neighborhoods. The group expects to acquire and begin renovating 500 properties in each city into affordable and energy-efficient homes over the next year and a half.

The Housing Authority of Baltimore City wrongfully used $885,834 of federal money to bail out the city's troubled cable agency, which transmits City Council meetings and public service announcements, according to an internal audit and agency officials. Two weeks ago, the City Council voted to reimburse the housing agency for the money it spent on cable television over a three-year period that was supposed to be used for housing programs. "We agreed that it was an improper use of HUD [the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development]

At first glance, the image could be a Rohrschach inkblot, or maybe abstract art. What it doesn't resemble is public information - because, really, how informative can a blacked-out chart be? This image was given to The Sun by Baltimore's housing authority in response to a records request made under the Maryland Public Information Act. It illustrates the challenges reporters regularly face in trying to obtain public information from government agencies. (The agencies would probably say it shows how effectively the law keeps prying eyes from seeing things not meant for public consumption.)

Maryland's housing department has unveiled 40-year fixed rate mortgage loans and $5,000 grants toward down payments to help residents cope with higher housing prices. The 40-year loans and down-payment grants are available this summer as part of the Department of Housing and Community Development's More House 4 Less program. More House 4 Less was established to help Marylanders afford houses in a market where the median home sale price rose more than seven times faster than did the median household income in the state between 2000 and 2003.

Signaling a widening probe into possible conflicts of interest in the Baltimore housing department, the mayor and housing commissioner announced yesterday that they are reviewing the financial records of all city inspectors to see if they own slum properties.The announcement came two days after an article in The Sun detailed more than a hundred deficiencies in four of the 17 rental rowhouses owned by city housing inspection superintendent Henry John "Jack" Reed III, 55.Mr. Reed has been an employee of the Housing and Community Development Department for nearly three decades -- during a time when he was amassing a portfolio of decrepit properties in East Baltimore beset by faulty heating systems, flooded basements, leaky sewage pipes and rampant rat infestation.

Inadequate credit checks and lax collection procedures at Maryland's housing agency may have cost the state more than $2.5 million, a new legislative audit concludes.The state Department of Housing and Community Development failed to monitor some programs, kept some inadequate records and violated some of its own internal controls, the report by the legislature's Department of Fiscal Services concludes.Housing Secretary Jacqueline H. Rogers angrily denounced the audit yesterday, calling it misleading and often inaccurate.

Baltimore officials are trying to revoke the license of an apartment landlord in the city's Reservoir Hill neighborhood and move residents out of the 202 units, a rare step aimed at stamping out drug activity and violence. Baltimore Housing Commissioner Paul T. Graziano said he issued a notice late Monday of his intent to revoke the license of the Madison Park North Apartments in the 700 block of W. North Ave. A hearing is scheduled for September to determine the fate of the property and its residents, many of whom would be relocated with government assistance if the license is pulled.

Inadequate credit checks and lax collection procedures at Maryland's housing agency may have cost the state more than $2.5 million, a new legislative audit concludes.The state Department of Housing and Community Development failed to monitor some programs, kept some inadequate records and violated some of its own internal controls, the report by the legislature's Department of Fiscal Services concludes.Housing Secretary Jacqueline H. Rogers angrily denounced the audit yesterday, calling it misleading and often inaccurate.

THE ANNAPOLIS HOUSING Authority hardly seems the center of political intrigue and secret agendas, but the smell of back-room deals and political payoffs is now wafting from some misguided personnel moves involving the agency's leadership.In early August, Annapolis Mayor Alfred A. Hopkins abruptly decided to remove Marita Carroll as chairwoman of the authority which oversees federally subsidized housing in the state capital. A former school teacher and community activist, Ms. Carroll was universally respected for her commitment to public service.

The Baltimore housing department received a $2.9 million federal grant Friday to clean up poisonous lead paint found in the walls of thousands of city buildings. Baltimore will receive $2.9 million from the federal government to fix lead-paint hazards in more than 200 homes, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Friday — a vote of confidence in the city's efforts to resolve past problems with its abatement program. "It's a tremendous boost to our work in protecting children from lead-paint poisoning," said Ken Strong, an assistant city housing commissioner who began overseeing the program last year after Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake moved it from the health department to the housing agency.

Two siblings trying to collect a $2.6 million judgment against Baltimore's public housing agency for lead-paint poisoning argue in court papers that an auction of 20 agency vehicles must go forward because officials have refused to pay. The Housing Authority of Baltimore City "must be treated like every other judgment debtor that fails to pay its debts," their attorney, Evan M. Goldman, wrote in a motion filed Wednesday in Baltimore Circuit Court....

A cluster of vacant rowhouses in the 1600 block of North Gay Street succumbed to the metal claw of an excavator this month, as yet another batch of unwanted city homes turned to rubble. Once the East Baltimore tract is cleared, nothing will be built there. It will be turned into a community-managed open space, providing a patch of green for residents of nearby senior housing units and tenants at the restored American Brewery building. The $215,000 demolition is among the most recent projects funded by the city's Affordable Housing Program.

Comptroller Peter Franchot's concerns about half-million-dollar piano procurement at a multi-million-dollar performing arts center may look politically correct, but what about the serious waste of money for Gov. Martin O'Malley's impending move of the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development from Crownsville to New Carrollton? Not only is it unnecessary and costly, it reminds the taxpayers that their interests are always the last considered by this budding political lackey.

Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold is skeptical of the decision to move two state agencies out of his county - and for good reason. In the case of the Department of Housing and Community Development's planned relocation to Prince George's County, he raises legitimate questions of cost and political favoritism that deserve closer scrutiny. But don't expect that closer scrutiny to come from the General Assembly. The DHCD's move to New Carrollton, announced nearly one year ago, has all the look of a political decision - the fulfillment of a five-year-old campaign promise from Gov. Martin O'Malley that fellow Democrats are unlikely to question, no matter how expensive it turns out to be or how much fuss a Republican county executive might make in the media.

One of the U.S. Senate's most aggressive watchdogs said Thursday he has begun an inquiry into Baltimore's public housing agency, after receiving calls and emails concerning "a wide range of allegations, including possible conflicts of interest, fraud, waste and abuse of taxpayers' monies. " Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, ranking Republican member of the Judiciary Committee, requested reams of documents from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees housing authorities around the country and steers millions of dollars a year to Baltimore.

A BIG THUMBS down is in order for the state Housing and Community Development Department official who said the agency doesn't want to aggressively market a loan program that would allow people without running water to get it. Why? Because the program's popularity could overwhelm the department and suck up too much staff time, the official said. What nonsense. It's the 21st century. We send objects into space all the time; we can split atoms and instantly message friends around the globe.

Baltimore officials are trying to revoke the license of an apartment landlord in the city's Reservoir Hill neighborhood and move residents out of the 202 units, a rare step aimed at stamping out drug activity and violence. Baltimore Housing Commissioner Paul T. Graziano said he issued a notice late Monday of his intent to revoke the license of the Madison Park North Apartments in the 700 block of W. North Ave. A hearing is scheduled for September to determine the fate of the property and its residents, many of whom would be relocated with government assistance if the license is pulled.