Object Lesson: Do Not Mess With Kenny Gamble’s Money Game
It’s admittedly hard to sink your teeth into the saga of Kenny Gamble (pictured) versus the Philadelphia Housing Authority: There isn’t a single sympathetic character in the whole mess, and it’s way too convoluted, reaching up to John Street and over to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson. And more than anything else, the whole affair produces defeated sighs over the way things (used to?) get done in this city. At issue is PHA’s sparring with Gamble’s non-profit, Universal Community Homes, over several plots of land in the vicinity of 13th & Catherine — plots once promised to Universal for redevelopment. But when PHA got salty about what they claimed was work Universal had promised to do but never had done, the deal for the plots went south. And then things got ugly real fast, even after Hizzoner intervened.
After Street had left and the meeting had ended, [PHA head Carl R.] Greene said, Gamble leaned toward him and said, “I don’t need lawyers.”
“I have friends.”
Fast forward: Gamble’s friend Jackson visits the sites, HUD money gets pulled from PHA, and more than anything, poor people get screwed out of affordable housing. It’s all chronicled quite well in this story, but bear in mind before reading: You may never hear “Back Stabbers” in quite the same way again.
Inky: Is Kenny Gamble The New Clay Davis? Discuss.
