Philadelphia Housing Authority Chief Carl Greene Facing Foreclosure
Jennifer Lin, Philadelphia Inquirer, August 13, 2010
The mortgage foreclosure crisis has claimed an unlikely victim: Carl R. Greene, executive director of the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA).
Wells Fargo Bank has foreclosed on Greene’s $615,035 condominium in the upscale Naval Square development in the city’s Schuylkill section.
In a lawsuit filed July 27, Wells Fargo said the amount in dispute was $386,685.22.
Greene, 53, runs the nation’s fourth-largest public housing agency and is one of the highest-paid public officials in the city. His salary is $306,370, and last year he got a $44,188 bonus.
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Dorn [Kirk Dorn, a spokesman for Greene] added that Greene “knows people will find it hard to understand how he could be involved in a possible foreclosure proceeding on his home, but he would prefer not to say more about it at this time.”
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Like any other Philadelphia homeowner threatened with losing a house, Greene will have to participate in the city’s mortgage-foreclosure program. He is scheduled to appear Sept. 16 in the courtroom of Judge Annette Rizzo.
PHA, a state authority, is funded mostly by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and is responsible for providing housing for Philadelphia’s poor. It maintains rowhouses and apartments for low-income residents and develops affordable housing for purchase.
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With the Obama administration, Greene has drawn attention and accolades from HUD for quickly putting to use economic-recovery money. In the last two years, PHA has received an additional $127 million in stimulus money that Greene has used to build or renovate 1,200 housing units.