Time for authority to get off Front Porch

Just what the New London Housing Authority doesn't need is another black eye, but that's what it deserves for the latest flap involving a tenant facing eviction for speaking out and the questionable practices his eviction is unearthing.

Frank Cirioni's Dec. 15 notice to vacate his Gordon Court apartment explains his transgression as failure to pay his December 2009 rent. But Cirioni has receipts dated Nov. 30, 2009, that he says prove he paid the rent and a $25 late fee assessed in 2006, but only brought to his attention in November.

What he didn't pay is the $110 legal fee the housing authority hit him with in October when it notified him it was evicting him for, among other things, discussing tenant issues without representatives of the authority or the Front Porch Foundation in attendance. The foundation is a nonprofit arm of the authority that ostensibly connects public housing tenants with resources and services.

Now, while the fine print of the authority's tenant-lease agreements may dictate the prohibition of discussing housing issues outside the earshot of the authority or foundation, that doesn't make it right. Someone should highlight free-speech passages in the Constitution and send them over to the housing authority.

At the same time, they could send along a copy of the introductory newsletter that the Front Porch Foundation distributed with much fanfare in March 2007. At that time the housing authority explained it had created the nonprofit FPF to "strengthen families and build communities."

"This is your opportunity as a resident to step up and become a leader, take an active role in your community, become involved in decision-making opportunities, and work with your neighbors side-by-side in helping to create a healthier community and quality of life for all residents living in our public housing neighborhoods," read the newsletter article.

But apparently it's not true, because that is exactly what Frank Cirioni is being evicted for. As head of the Gordon Court Tenant Association for the past several years, he has arranged for things such as guest speakers, volunteered his time to work at the monthly food giveaways and recruited cadets from the nearby Coast Guard Academy to assist the elderly and disabled tenants to rake leaves and clean gutters.

Cirioni is just the kind of tenant volunteer you would think Front Porch executive director Lisa Sullivan would welcome. And maybe she would if the housing authority stopped interfering.

Sullivan insists Front Porch is a distinct and separate entity from the housing authority, but it sure doesn't look that way. Tenants, and not just Cirioni, complain that the authority uses the foundation as a strong arm to muffle dissent and control independent-minded residents in city housing. The tenants complain that the authority/foundation has interfered in elections of tenant associations and tried to force attendance at FPF meetings for residents who want to take advantage of the food pantries.

Sullivan says that's all untrue.

But this is a fact: Shirley Gillis, who is chair of the housing authority, is also acting chair of the Front Porch Foundation's board of directors.

And, in a clear violation of financial disclosure standards for nonprofits, the foundation hasn't publicly reported its revenues and spending since 2007.

Sullivan took over as FP executive director in August 2008. Until May 2009 the housing authority maintained all financial responsibility for the nonprofit, according to Sullivan. It was at her insistence, she says, that the authority finally turned the purse strings over to the foundation last spring.

But the required financial transparency for the nonprofit is still not forthcoming. Suillivan says accountants are now auditing the records from 2008, a year when the foundation benefited from $218,000 in largess. And the records for 2009, when Front Porch was the recipient of about $160,000, are being prepared.

Sullivan says she is concerned about the lack of disclosure and working to remedy the problems she inherited. Front Porch is doing good work to empower public housing tenants, she says, not trying to stifle them.

It's hard to sort out, but this much is certain - the housing authority may have spawned the Front Porch Foundation several years back, but it has no business managing or dictating to it today.

If the FPF is worth its salt, it needs to distance itself quickly from the housing authority.

Ann Baldelli is associate editorial page editor.