Sanders decree gets eviction notice

A decade after a federal judge imposed a sweeping decree intended to ease segregation in public housing in Allegheny County by funneling millions of dollars to local communities, that same judge on Friday approved an agreement ending the decree.

"Congratulations, all of you," said Senior U.S. District Judge Gustave Diamond. "It's been a long time."

Under the agreement between the county and the task force charged with crafting a plan to spend $30 million in federal aid, the task force will disband. Allegheny County's Department of Economic Development will oversee its remaining money and projects.

Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato hailed the end of the task force, made up of federal and local housing officials as well as members of community development organizations. Onorato has been a persistent critic of the task force dating to his days as the county's controller.

In 2001, when he was controller, Onorato issued an audit criticizing the task force for sitting on millions of dollars meant to spur development in poor communities through various improvements including housing and job training centers. After being sworn in as county chief executive last year, he made shifting control from the task force to the county a priority.

"Some of the problem was that, in the past, the professional accountants and lawyers were getting the money," Onorato said yesterday. "I didn't think we were getting hard, concrete economic development."

With the county taking control, he promised: "We will get approval to get projects moving forward. It will be part of a larger, more comprehensive economic development plan."

So far, about $8 million of the $30 million has been spent on completed projects. About $13 million has been awarded to contractors, and $9.2 million has been earmarked for specific projects, but contracts have yet to be awarded.

Some, such as Frances Carter, 57, say the consent decree provided major improvements. She and her grandson once lived in McKees Rocks Terrace, a public housing complex she described as offering "the barest life possible."

Now, she has a two-bedroom townhouse in Meyers Ridge, a new development created and paid for under the Sanders consent decree. Her home overlooks Chartiers Avenue in McKees Rocks. She talked proudly yesterday of how the Sanders lawsuit spurred the building of a community center and a job training facility in her neighborhood.

"My home is so beautiful I actually put up Christmas decorations this year," Carter said. "I never used to do that."

Others, such as Cheryl Sanders -- one of the original plaintiffs whose name was appropriated for the 1988 lawsuit that eventually was certified as a class action -- grew disenchanted with the whole process. As bureaucratic hurdles sprang up over how the money was to be spent, she opted not to move into a so-called Sanders house. She chose to stay in Braddock, where the federal government subsidized her rent.

Sanders couldn't be reached yesterday.

The $30 million in federal Community Development Block Grant money was intended to provide housing and other neighborhood improvements in Braddock, Clairton, Duquesne, Homestead, McKees Rocks, Rankin and Wilkinsburg.

Money already has gone to build 130 public housing units to replace those torn down, and for creating more than 800 units for low-income renters throughout the county.

Now, it will be the county's responsibility to make sure the remaining money is spent on the 33 projects still in the pipeline.

One of the most controversial efforts spawned by the decree was the purchase of houses in scattered sites throughout the county to provide housing for low-income residents. Several communities filed lawsuits to block the purchases but were unsuccessful.

Former Plum Councilman Harry Schlegel, who in 1999 led an unsuccessful campaign for the borough to secede from Allegheny County to get out from under the decree, continues to oppose it.

"Those houses were taken off the tax rolls, and we're losing tax revenue," said Schlegel, Plum's tax collector.

Three of the homes are in the Ramparts section of Plum.

"The Sanders decree was a bad decision. The government stepped in and tried to level the playing field. Certain people were enriched and the rest were made poor," he said.

Marie Mummert, a lifelong resident of Mt. Lebanon, said she had concerns when a home on her street was selected for the program. But she decided to keep an open mind.

"They're nice people," said Marie Mummert, 69, of Vallevista Drive about the family who lives in the Sanders home. "They work and go to school. They keep to themselves."

Don Driscoll, who represented the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit, told the judge that he disputes those who characterize the consent decree as a failure.

He acknowledged that a recent federal study had found negligible change in the racial mix in the county's public housing complexes, but contended the study is flawed.

That study found that from January 1996 to October 2003, the percentage of people living in desegregated public housing in the county had improved by 4 percentage points, to 26 percent.

Driscoll said the study failed to account for mixed-income housing developments that offer housing for low-income residents in complexes also marketed to people earning regular incomes. When those developments are factored in, he said the percentage of those in desegregated public housing in the county jumps to 40 percent.

Driscoll told the judge the 33 projects the county plans to finish over the next two years will have an even greater impact.

"We hope these 33 projects will substantially improve the neighborhoods," Driscoll said in a telephone interview after the hearing. "Those projects will make a better place for existing populations, but they will also help attract new residents."

He added that he will receive quarterly progress reports from the county, and will take the case back to the judge if the county fails to live up to its obligations.

"There is an agreement, and I will enforce that agreement if I need to," Driscoll said. "We left the courthouse in a very amicable manner. But the bottom line is that, yes, I will stay involved."

Driscoll also said the county, not task force officials, stalled progress.

"The task force did have a learning curve, and there were decisions made that if we would have had to do again, we would have acted more expeditiously, but there were a number of obstacles that were thrown up by the county and county personnel," Driscoll said.

The issue of attorney's fees still remains to be settled. Lawyers representing the plaintiffs and the county will continue to negotiate and report to Diamond next month. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development agreed in December 1999 to pay $867,500 in attorney's fees to lawyers for the plaintiffs.

Sanders history

A federal lawsuit filed nearly 17 years ago resulted in the Sanders consent decree. The goal was to end racial discrimination in public housing operated by the Allegheny County Housing Authority. A federal judge on Friday dissolved the decree. Here is a history of the lawsuit and the decree: @box-list:1988: Lawsuit filed alleging the Allegheny County Housing Authority failed to take steps to desegregate public housing. The federal suit, certified as a class action, was brought by Braddock public housing resident Cheryl Sanders and Neighborhood Legal Services.

December 1994: U.S. District Judge Gustave Diamond approves a consent decree settling the lawsuit. The settlement calls for a task force made up of federal and local housing officials and members of community development organizations to spend $30 million in federal aid to end public housing segregation. The initial project is the construction of 100 public housing units in Braddock, Clairton, Duquesne, Rankin, McKees Rocks, Homestead and Wilkinsburg.

September 1995: The Allegheny County Housing Authority applies to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for money to demolish 409 public housing units to comply with the consent decree.

June 1996: Allegheny County announces it will look throughout the county to build single-family houses for public housing renters, to comply with the consent decree. The decision superceded the previous plan to concentrate construction in Churchill, Chalfant, Edgewood, Forest Hills, Monroeville, Swissvale and Wilkins.

December 1996: Diamond rules Edgewood has no legal standing to oppose the consent decree and block people from moving into the units.

September 2000: Cheryl Sanders, the former Talbot Towers resident for whom the lawsuit is named, said she wants to stay in Braddock rather than move into a so-called Sanders home elsewhere.

November 2001: Dan Onorato, then the Allegheny County controller, issues an audit that says the task force charged with implementing the consent decree is putting millions of dollars in federal aid at risk by sitting on money meant to spur development in poor communities. Onorato called for the county to ask Diamond to give the task force three months to spend the money or lose control of it to the county.

2002: Homes to replace the 100 units lost at Talbot Towers -- mostly single-family and townhouse units -- are all occupied.

Jan. 28, 2005: Diamond approves an agreement ending the consent decree. Under the agreement, the task force that has overseen implementation of the decree will disband. Allegheny County agrees to work toward completing 33 task force projects in the next two years.