PAUL T. GRAZIANO inherited two huge, troubled bureaucracies two years ago, when he became Baltimore's housing commissioner. Skyrocketing abandonment and overall neighborhood deterioration had paralyzed the demoralized housing department; the separate Housing Authority was barely functional.

After some incremental tinkering, Mr. Graziano has now unveiled a new structure that effectively merges the two agencies' leadership and operations. For the first time, a joint office will handle their finances, for example. The overall organizational chart has been redrawn as well; many of the top managers are new hires from out of town.

The plus side of this new arrangement is that responsibilities in the housing bureaucracy will be better defined. There is a potential drawback as well: A total of 12 officials, including five day-to-day top managers, report directly to Mr. Graziano. Unless he is decisive and supremely focused, his office could become a bottleneck.

Much will depend on the interplay between Mr. Graziano and Douglass Austin, the new deputy commissioner for development, who will come on board next month. That's because Mayor Martin O'Malley wants the housing department to become more aggressive in promoting new homeownership, neighborhood revitalization and land development.

Mr. Graziano is not an expert in these matters; his strength is in public housing. Yet his department will be expected to deliver in measurable ways. For example, the mayor's office is said to be close to attracting a leading national homebuilder to develop housing sites in the city. If that happens, Baltimore cannot afford to squander the opportunity because the city's top housing echelon is too new on the job and unfamiliar with Baltimore. They will need to get up to speed fast.

When Mr. Graziano came here from New York two years ago, the housing bureaucracies were so backward, most routine records were done by hand. It was a mess. Even now, not everything has been computerized, but new hardware and tracking programs are being installed.

Will the revamped organization make things better?

Perhaps.

It certainly will provide one undeniable advantage. With clearer definition of responsibilities, there will be little room for excuses if things don't work out. The buck stops in Mr. Graziano's office.