The city's housing department, which has experienced several shake-ups during the past two years, is undergoing more change.

The Department of Housing and Community Development is revamping its development unit and hiring four new mid- to upper-level managers. An assistant housing commissioner resigned last week, in part because of the reorganization.

Housing officials - who also oversee the Housing Authority of Baltimore City - recently took steps to restructure public information, ombudsman and public housing functions.

City Councilman Edward Reisinger, chairman of the Housing, Health and Human Services Committee, said he has been supportive of housecleaning in the past but was worried that the agency is "always in a transition stage."

"I have never seen an agency that has done so much restructuring and reorganization in my life," he said. "I've been in private industry for 20 years, and as a manager you may see supervisors moved around. ... [But] every time you turn around, someone's being promoted, demoted or leaving. I can't keep up with it."

Melvin Edwards, a newly hired spokesman for housing, said few more changes are expected.

"We're nearing the end," he said. "This isn't the beginning of lots of changes. This is the end of some changes that the commissioner wanted to make to bring some additional focus and specialization to the agency.

"It's obviously every organization's hope to improve," Edwards added. "That's what we're going for."

City Council President Sheila Dixon has asked Housing Commissioner Paul T. Graziano to discuss the changes.

"I want to know why some decisions were made," she said.

JoAnn Copes, the city's assistant housing commissioner for development, announced last week that she would resign at the end of the month. Housing officials said Thursday that her reasons were personal.

But Friday, Copes said she decided to quit her $93,600-a-year job in part because officials were "retitling" her job and bringing in a new deputy commissioner who would be her superior. Copes, a new grandmother, said she also had personal reasons for leaving."It just seemed not really like the job I'd signed on for," said Copes, who has been with housing since May 2000.

"I had been thinking for some time about leaving. This is a very high-pressure situation," she said. "They certainly asked me to reconsider, but I just think the timing seemed to be right [to leave]."

The department is hiring four new officials, three in newly created positions, and one to fill a slot created when deputy housing commissioner Denise M. Duval resigned in July.

Christopher Shea, former director of special projects and planning for the Pittsburgh Housing Authority, has been hired as associate deputy director of planning and development. His salary is $100,000 a year.

J. Gregory Love of Detroit will become deputy commissioner for housing and building code enforcement.

Ruth Louie, who works in the mayor's office, will serve as assistant commissioner for community development services.

Douglass Austin has been hired as deputy commissioner of housing and community development. Information about his hometown and last employment were not available.

Salaries for Love, Louie and Austin were not available because they had not yet been approved by the Board of Estimates, Edwards said.

HCD and the Housing Authority have undergone a number of reorganizations under the O'Malley administration - from the top spot down to the commissioner's driver. That is not a big surprise for an agency deemed "barely functional" in a July 2000 report by business groups.

Mayor Martin O'Malley's first housing commissioner, Patricia J. Payne, resigned in October 2000, eight months after she took the job. O'Malley said at the time that Payne was not moving quickly enough on reforms.

Graziano replaced her in October 2000 and made a number of changes in his first year: cutting 76 positions at HCD to reduce waste and merging some operations with the Housing Authority; starting an overhaul of the Section 8 program; and hiring a new director, chief financial officer and inspector general. His deputy director, Deborah L. Vincent, died of leukemia in July last year, less than six months after she was hired.

In January, the official responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations at the Housing Authority left his post. Also that month, the employee responsible for selling city property to developers was laid off, as was Graziano's driver.

In August, housing sent out 18 layoff notices and asked the employees to reapply for their positions as part of a restructuring effort in three offices.