Bush housing secretary resigns amid mounting corruption charges

Jackson stood side-by-side with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson last December when the administration announced its “Hope Now Alliance,” which relies on voluntary efforts by mortgage lenders to modify loans for homeowners facing foreclosure. With so much public and media attention focused on federal housing policy, it became a political liability to keep as head of HUD such a discredited political operator.

The most recent allegations against Jackson revolve around the HUD cutoff of funding to the Philadelphia Housing Authority after the PHA declined to turn over a disputed parcel of vacant land to a friend of Jackson’s, songwriter and developer Kenny Gamble. The lot was valued at $2 million.

Last fall, HUD cut off $50 million in funding to the PHA, charging that the local authority was in violation of numerous federal rules, including one requiring that 5 percent of housing units be accessible to the disabled. PHA Director Carl R.Greene filed a lawsuit charging that the cutoff was an act of political retaliation sparked by the conflict with Gamble.