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. .

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.”

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. .

Ending nearly four years of on-and-off negotiations, the Philadelphia Housing Authority and the police department have signed a new contract.

The deal gives the department’s 26 members a 2.5 percent raise April 1, and a 3 percent raise on April 1, 2013, the final year of the contract. And, in an effort to address the years where officers worked without a contract, the new agreement also gave members a 7.5 percent retroactive raise.

In a significant change from previous contracts, the agreement requires police officers to contribute 5.5 percent of their pay toward their pension plan. PHA will match that total.

Until now, members had a traditional defined benefit plan.

The deal was ratified by housing Commissioner Karen Newton Cole on Thursday.

President of the Fraternal Order of Housing Police Rodney Little could not be reached Friday for comment.

PHA director Michael Kelly lauded the agreement.

“We are committed to agreements with our unionized workforce that are fair to our employees and to taxpayers,” he said. “With this contract, we are telling our uniformed police officers we appreciate their service, and we are also keeping within the financial realities of what our funding will allow,” said Michael Kelly, Administrative Receiver/Executive Director in a statement.

In addition to the wage increase, the housing authority agreed to pay the officers three years of back clothing allowance.

PHA has 26 uniformed police officers who mainly patrol older public housing sites.

That figure represents a major reduction in force from a high of 350 officers. Housing authority officials said that fewer officers are needed as the agency moves away from older, high-rise style projects to new houses built into the city’s street grid, which opens the agency’s developments up to patrols by city police. The housing authority also hires private security firms to augment policing, a practice that has been increasing since 2005. The agency had not hired a new police officer since 1998.

That fact has created some tension between the union and management.

Little, in statements to the Tribune earlier this year, accused the PHA of trying to break the union and noted that the two sides hadn’t even met to talk terms since July 2011.

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. .

Once again a director of the Philadelphia Housing Authority is involved in a sex scandal.

Michael P. Kelly who was brought on as director of PHA after a scandal involving his predecessor, Carl R. Greene toppled him, has admitted that he left the housing agency because of an affair with a senior aide.

Kelly cited “family reasons” for his sudden resignation last Friday. On Monday, it was announced that he had been named to head Washington, D.C.’s Department of Housing and Community Development.

But apparently there was more to the story.

PHA staffers had complained to officials at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that Kelly was having a consensual affair with a woman he had appointed to a senior staff position.

“After questions began to be raised, the 38-year-old woman who was here on a work visa suddenly resigned three weeks ago and went back to her native country,” WPVI’s Dann Cuellar reported Monday.

Kelly, 58, a married father of three, admitted Tuesday in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer that he resigned after federal officials learned of his affair with a PHA manager.

Karen Newton Cole, chief of human resources at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said HUD started the review after receiving a tip from a PHA employee in early spring. The employee claimed that Audrey Lim was receiving preferential treatment as a result of a relationship with Kelly.

HUD oversaw an investigation that determined there were no illegal payments and that the relationship was consensual. When confronted Kelly, admitted to the affair.

“It’s the latest in a series of scandals at the Philadelphia Housing Authority,” said State Representative Michael McGeehan.

Unfortunately McGeehan, a longtime critic of the agency is right.

When Kelly arrived at PHA in December 2010 it was during a period of major upheaval for an agency rocked by scandal.

Kelly took over the agency after Greene was fired in September 2012 after the board of directors discovered that Greene used approximately $900,000 of federal money for multiple sexual-harassment complaint settlements. There are federal investigations under way on the scandal.

Kelly had been credited with bringing reform to PHA, which provides homes for 80,000 low-income people and has an annual budget of $400 million.

Now it appears that Kelly was unable to adhere to the standards of his reforms.

An argument could be made that the transition plan that Kelly instituted to establish a culture of respect, accountability and transparency, was at work when staffers felt comfortable and empowered enough to report on their new boss.

Regardless of the impressive accomplishments made by Kelly in his brief tenure at PHA, it was for the best for him to resign to ensure the trust of PHA employees and taxpaying public that the beleaguered housing agency has been truly reformed.

Michael P. Kelly announced his resignation as director of the Philadelphia Housing Authority last Friday.

On Monday it was announced that District of Columbia Mayor Vincent C. Gray has tapped Kelly to direct the district’s Department of Housing and Community Development.

“Frankly, I’ve been thinking about this for a while, “Kelly told the Tribune Friday when asked about his resignation. “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 experience with city council. I’m thankful for my time here in Philadelphia, and I’m grateful for the opportunity.”

“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.”

When the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development accepted Kelly’s resignation it also announced that Estelle Richman, a senior adviser to the HUD secretary, will replace Karen Newton-Cole, the agency’s one-person board chair.

Richman served as the lone authority board commissioner when HUD placed the housing authority in receivership last year. She will be returning to that role.

When Kelly arrived at PHA in December 2010 it was during a period of major upheaval for an agency rocked by scandal.

Kelly took over the agency after his predecessor, Carl R. Greene, was fired in September 2010 after the board of directors discovered that Greene used approximately $900,000 of federal money for multiple sexual-harassment complaint settlements.

He brought more than 30 years of public experience from other cities like New York, San Francisco, New Orleans and Washington, D.C.

Kelly has been credited with reforms and bringing stability to PHA, which provides homes for 80,000 low-income people and has an annual budget of $400 million.

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

It would have been good if Kelly could have stayed longer to provide even more stability to an agency still recovering from Greene’s tenure.

In the interim, Kelly will be replaced by Kelvin Jeremiah, PHA’s current director of audit and compliance. A national search will be launched to find a new executive director, said Newton-Cole.

PHA should search for a director who is committed to continuing the kinds of reform that Kelly brought to the housing agency.