By Jessica Fargen
Thursday, October 7, 2010
The tenant-run management at Bromley-Heath – one of the city’s most crime-ridden public housing projects – has failed to bounce violent tenants, spurred racial tensions between blacks and Hispanics and kept shoddy records, a Boston Housing Authority investigation shows.
The probe of Tenant Management Corp. at the 774-unit Jamaica Plain project was sparked by discrimination allegations lodged in April with the BHA.
“There’s some very serious issues out there,” said Boston Housing Authority Administrator Bill McGonagle. “Clearly there is a perception problem and perception can be reality for those perceiving discriminatory actions.”
The findings are not serious enough for BHA to seize management control from tenants as they did in 1998, he said. The management corporation must come up with an action plan to address the problems by the end of the month.
The project’s longtime executive director Mildred Hailey admitted there were problems and vowed to work with the BHA to fix them.
“We acknowledge that there are perceptions about certain things in the community and we are working toward doing everything to (repair them). I want to make sure that everybody in our community feels welcome, is treated fairly and with respect and dignity,” she said. The investigation, by consulting firm CVR Associates Inc., included a review of records and interviews with tenants and staff. It was completed Sept. 30. Findings include:
- Management harbored “resentment” for the increased number of Hispanics at Bromley-Heath. Despite no hard evidence of discrimination, Hispanics felt a “a palpable sense of fear and intimidation” by management.
- The property manager has not moved to evict any tenants since January 2009, despite police reports showing 54 instances when violent tenants should have been removed.
- Management failed to collect more than $36,000 in back rent and kept spotty records, including a lack of Social Security information. Nearly 50 percent of rent calculations in a review were wrong.
- Many tenants believe managers, including Hailey, gave preferential treatment to friends and family. While this perception could not be proven, “the allegations are widespread and serious and cannot be dismissed entirely,” the report found.
McGonagle said a monitor will be put in place to ensure that the management corporation follows their corrective action plan.
The investigation was launched after five Hispanic residents complained to the BHA’s civil rights office in April about alleged discrimination. In addition, 166 tenants, mostly Hispanic, signed a petition calling for the ouster of the property manager, who is black.
The Tenant Management Corp. was formed in 1971 as one of the country’s first public housing, tenant-run management companies.
Hailey, the executive director who helped found the organization in 1971, has been hailed for her work at Bromley-Heath. But she also has come under fire. In 1998, two of her grandsons who were living in her apartment were convicted in a Bromley-Heath drug ring.
