Two dozen residents of public housing in Baltimore confronted embattled Commissioner Paul T. Graziano on Thursday over maintenance problems at the aging complexes.
The residents encircled Graziano at East Baltimore's Perkins Homes, chanting "We want action" and demanding that he address problems that include rat and roach infestations and loose handrails.
"You allowed housing to get this way. You are the problem," John Comer told Graziano.
Graziano, who has led the Housing Authority of Baltimore City for 15 years, defended his record. He agreed to meet with the residents again this month, the latest in a series of meetings organized by the advocacy group Maryland Communities United.
The commissioner said he made the unscheduled trip to the housing complex Thursday morning after learning that residents were gathering.
He outlined actions taken in recent months to address maintenance problems, including hiring new property managers, bringing in more specialized staff and creating a paperless work-order system.
The backlog of work orders has dropped over the past eight months from 4,000 to fewer than 50, Graziano said.
The agency is working with the city on a rat-eradication program and developed a quality-control process to monitor and randomly check maintenance work.
His future at the agency is uncertain.
State Sen. Catherine E. Pugh, the Democratic nominee for mayor, has said she will replace Graziano if she is elected in November.
Outgoing Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has defended Graziano. She has refused to replace him in spite of mounting criticism about the conditions of the complexes and a sex-for-repairs scandal involving members of the maintenance staff.
Graziano told residents Thursday he was committed to addressing their problems.
"I have been over here, to all of the sites," he said. "I am happy to come over any time you want."
But Graziano told Comer that he resented the "media circus" the community group attracted by calling news conferences to highlight meetings between the agency and residents.
"What I am not going to do is, every time I meet with folks — this is one of the reasons I stopped meeting with you — we're not going to make a media circus," Graziano said.
"You are the circus," Comer shot back.
The group pressed Graziano to commit to another meeting, which he agreed to hold within the next two weeks.
Graziano has met with Communities United several times since late last year to discuss problems, which first brought to light the sex-for-repairs scandal. Comer said Graziano postponed a meeting in January and never rescheduled it.
Maria Brown, who has lived in the Perkins Homes for six years, said she routinely has to wait weeks and sometimes a month before her maintenance problems are fixed.
She said she cannot rid her apartment of bedbugs and roaches, and once caught and drowned a mouse in her bathtub.
"I am sick and tired of it," said Brown, 57. "They want their rent on time. Things can't be fixed in my house? We're tired of living in these conditions."
The 75-year-old housing project near Fells Point and Harbor East is part of a long-term redevelopment plan. The Housing Authority recently won approval for a zoning change that will allow officials to tear down the complex and replace it with a mixed-income development.
About 1,400 people live in the 600-unit complex. Graziano pledged Thursday that any residents not facing eviction will have the right to live in the community once it is redeveloped.
Comer said the group has seen improvements in the authority. In addition to creating the new work-order system, the agency has relocated residents living in deplorable conditions.
Still, he said, "we're fighting an uphill battle."
"Thousands of residents need adequate housing," he said. "Much of that is connected to the reasons why kids can't learn in school. ... It's time all of the elected officials wake up."
Geraldine Morgan, 78, said she no longer sleeps in her bedroom at Perkins Homes because of the bedbugs.
After 11 years in the complex, she said, she has rat holes big enough for a cat to fit through, and her "filthy" walls need a fresh coat of paint.
"Come down one night and stay in the projects," Morgan said.
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