A closet door fell off. Floor tiles came unglued. The stove was installed in the middle of the kitchen. And the bathtub was painted over, not replaced -- so every shower peels away a little more paint.
Barbara Silver, who lives in a Sandtown-Winchester home renovated with $37,639 in public money, says she and her nine children were better off when they lived in a high-priced, privately owned apartment.
"It ain't no better than one of them slum landlords that I've seen," Ms. Silver says. "I call it the house that Jack built. Every time you touch something, it falls apart."
Ms. Silver is among hundreds of Baltimore residents who moved into homes owned and newly refurbished by the city's Housing Authority -- only to find faulty heating systems, leaky plumbing, electrical problems and collapsing ceilings.
The buildings were repaired in a program that spent at least $25.6 million to fix up dilapidated homes all over town without competitive bids. A critical federal audit shows the Housing Authority sank as much as $100,000 into some dwellings. And some of that money went to contractors who made faulty and phantom repairs.
More than 25 percent of the money -- $6.7 million -- went to friends and relatives of Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, housing chief Daniel P. Henson III, an authority board member and an agency analyst.
The program is now at the center of an investigation by a federal grand jury in Baltimore, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The Housing Authority issued a statement to The Sun Friday, saying it was reviewing the work of some contractors and asking them to make repairs or reimburse money. So far, housing supervisors say they have obtained cash refunds from contractors or required them to repair the problems. The value of the refunds and repairs to date is $62,000.
Last November and December, reporters and a photographer for The Sun visited 101 homes renovated in low-income communities from Hollander Ridge on Baltimore's northeastern rim to single-family homes in East and West Baltimore owned by the Housing Authority.
Only eight tenants say they were satisfied with the work.
Patricia Coleman is typical of the others. For 12 years, she lived in a publicly owned apartment on Odell Avenue at Hollander Ridge and says she never had many maintenance problems. But she moved in 1993 when the agency chose her apartment for a complete renovation.
Ms. Coleman says she told the contractor that her Hollander townhouse didn't need work.
"I said, 'You all don't have much to do in here," she recalls. "He said, 'We're going to put a new everything in here anyway."
And they did. In all, the' Housing Authority paid $33,716 to fix up Ms. Coleman's old home.
When she moved into her new place and tried to take a shower, she got another surprise. She says the contractor tiled over the entire wall, blocking off the plumbing supply line for the shower head. The line remained blocked by four-inch white tiles on Friday.
It's something that annoys her every day.
"I love taking a shower," she says.
Promises, promises
Barbara Silver has her share of troubles, too. Her stove was installed in the middle of the small kitchen. It wouldn't fit against the wall because the counter top was too long.
"I cannot figure out how they [inspectors] passed it. You see the stove sticking out there, don't you?" she says. "They told me they would come back and fix it, but they never showed up. All you get is promises." Last week, the stove remained in the middle of her kitchen.
Ms. Silver's home at 1424 N. Mount St. was renovated by J&J; Management, also called Westley Construction.
Awarded more than $1 million to repair 31 homes under the no-bid program, the company is owned by Westley Johnson, a childhood friend of Mr. Henson, the housing chief.
Auditors for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development toured Ms. Silver's home last spring. They found that J&J; overcharged the authority $14,461 for renovations. It billed $3,750 to buff the floors after estimating the job at $300. It charged $4,044 for work that was not done or had to be redone -- including $250 for a tub, $225 for ceramic bath tile, and $175 for a fence and gate that were not installed.
"If they did all of that new stuff here," Ms. Silver says, "I'd say, 'Where is it?"
The auditors also found that J&J; inflated costs at other homes by as much as 138 percent. In some cases, records show, the work was so poor, the federal government demanded a $50,000 refund.
Mr. Johnson declined to discuss his company's work.
One of the largest concentrations of no-bid contracts went to renovate homes at Hollander Ridge, a public housing development off Route 40 named for the late civil rights activist Sid Hollander. The agency spent $2.1 million to rehab 85 townhouses and apartments, sprucing up the 19-year-old community.
Carole Lee lives on Bobhendrickson Court, a short, crescent-shaped street located in the middle of Hollander Ridge.
When she moved into her three-story home more than a year ago, the heating system was not working properly. As of last week, Ms. Lee was still using her oven to heat her home. She also says a new window in her daughter's upstairs bedroom leaks when it rains. Water pours through the frame, flooding the bedroom and leaking through the ceiling to the living room below.
"I put a comforter over the window when it rains, but that gets soaked," Ms. Lee says.
The Housing Authority paid Elias Contracting $30,172 to renovate the home, records show. Elias is owned by relatives of Larry Jennings Jr., a Housing Authority board member who left the agency late last year. Run by Larry Jennings Sr. and Georgia Page, the former board member's father and sister, Elias renovated 63 homes under the program and received more than $1.1 million.
Federal auditors described the company's work as poor, and said it billed for work that was never performed. Among the problems at other homes: 5-foot glass doors installed in 6-foot openings, and a bill of $4,437 for 19 windows that were never installed.
Elias' records have been subpoenaed by the federal grand jury examining corruption at the authority. Larry Jennings Sr. declined to discuss the company's work, referring questions to his attorney, George Terwilliger III.
Mr. Terwilliger says Elias performed quality work and made follow-up repairs at no charge.
"These disputes are typical," he says. "When they got call-backs, they didn't bill the city because they take pride in the work they do."
Earlier this year, the Housing Authority announced that it was renovating 68 more homes at Hollander Ridge to make them accessible to disabled residents -- including 13 homes that had been rehabbed in the last two years under the no-bid program.
Dark and drafty
In addition to repairing public housing communities, the authority fixed up single-family homes it owns in neighborhoods across the city.
After waiting eight years for public housing, Angenetta White and her four children moved into a semi-detached house near Coppin State College. Ever since she moved in, she says, her daughter Alexis' bedroom upstairs was so drafty, she couldn't live there in cold weather, even after Ms. White insulated the windows with plastic sheeting.
Ms. White also says some electrical outlets were dead. Lights flickered on and off in the kitchen and dining room. Tiles buckled up and peeled from the floor. Rubber treads glued to the stairs pulled loose, causing her 4-year-old son Dwayne to take a tumble.
The Housing Authority paid Budget Contractors $40,966 to renovate the home at 2912 Walbrook Ave. Federal auditors found a series of problems at the house during a visit last spring: Overcharges of $2,677 for sub-flooring never installed, $250 for bogus concrete work and $437 for buffing the floor -- an unwarranted charge, documents show.
The company also was ordered by the authority to replace broken floor tiles and fix the defective electrical outlets. All told, the company was ordered to repay $7,119 for poor work and work that was not performed at Ms. White's house.
Ms. White says the contractor returned to make a few repairs last summer.
Budget renovated 52 homes under the program and received $1 million. Its records also have been subpoenaed by the federal grand jury. Lionel Murphy, Budget's licensed officer, did not respond to phone messages or a certified letter seeking an interview.
"For where I came from, and not having anything, I deal with it," says Ms. White, who lives on a monthly $435 welfare check. "I do the best I can, or try to ignore it, unless it gets really rough."
So does Sheila Bond, who lives in a five-bedroom house at 1001 N. Stricker St. in West Baltimore.
At first, the house was a financial and personal reliefQ ' a blessing,' Ms. Bond recalls.
But then part of a ceiling collapsed. A leak in an upstairs bathtub caused the dining room ceiling to bubble, she says. Then a two-foot section of the ceiling caved in and Ms. Bond was stunned to see what fell from the rafters.
Between the ceiling and the second-story floor, someone had stuffed piles of debris -- silverware, moldy rags, bottles and clothing. She blames workers for leaving the trash when they gutted the house.
"We didn't use the dining room for a while after that because it looked sickening," Ms. Bond says. "I lost my appetite. It made me ill.... When that ceiling fell, and I saw all that stuff . . . it let me know they didn't do their job."
A patch of gypsum wallboard was put over the hole late last year, but that's all. Ms. Bond says workers promised to come back and repaint her dining room. Last week they still hadn't returned to finish the job.
The Housing Authority paid Lanocha Construction $39,424 to renovate the house.
President Timothy Lanocha says Ms. Bond is not careful when she and her family take showers. He says they must be putting the curtain outside the tub -- allowing water to spill out and leak through the ceiling. Last week, Lanocha pleaded guilty to federal perjury charges for concealing payments and gifts the company gave to former housing manager Charles Morris, who supervised the no-bid program before he pleaded guilty to corruption charges last year.
Ms. Bond was furious with Lanocha's explanation.
"They did not seal the bathroom the way they were supposed to," she says.
L Nonetheless, Ms. Bond says she's still happy to have a home.
"Even with the problems, I thank God for it," she says.
Across the city from Ms. Bond, Darlene King lives in a home renovated by a different contractor. But she says she has similar problems.
At her home in East Baltimore, Ms. King says there were electrical problems in the bedroom of her 11-year-old daughter, Tanika Thompson. Without lights, Tanika couldn't do homework in her room. Ms. King also says a faulty bathtub drain leaks dirty water into a bathroom below and the heating system didn't work properly. She says the house was always cold.
More problems
On the third floor, she says windows were poorly installed -- a gap at the top lets in cold air. In the kitchen, an electrical outlet was dead. And in the back yard, a power cable was not properly attached and was draped over a metal chain link ,fence.
The Housing Authority paid Noll, Petrovich & Sons $42,496 to renovate the rowhouse at 1114 Brentwood Ave. Federal auditors who visited the home cited the power cable as a "very hazardous condition." They said the company over charged $1,200 for windows, $715 for a fence and gate never installed, and $375 for sub-flooring never replaced. It won $560,820 in no-bid contracts to repair 14 town homes and apartments.
Company President Stephen J. Noll blames the city and utility workers for the unsecured power cable, and says he didn't inflate costs or bill for work that wasn't done. In fact, records show the company, now called Stephen J. Noll Construction, charged 11 percent below market value for the job. Mr. Noll says the city still owes him $30,000.
"If HUD wants to go through every house with me," he says, "I'll go through every house with HUD, and we'll see who owes who."