Back in September, several public housing residents in Baltimore came forward with a horrifying story–maintenance workers demanded sexual favors in return for making badly-needed repairs. On Friday, the city reached a class-action settlement with the women, and admitted that several now-former workers indeed traded sex for fixing conditions in the victims’ homes that were often life-threatening.
The Housing Authority of Baltimore City agreed to split up to $8 million between 20 women who were sexually harassed by the authority’s maintenance workers, plus any other women who come forward in the next few months. Additionally, the 20 original plaintiffs will get Section 8 vouchers so they can move elsewhere. According to their attorney, Cary Hansel, this will allow the original plaintiffs to get a new start so they won’t have to “live where they suffered.” Baltimore state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby has launched a criminal investigation into the case, and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development is also investigating the matter.
The case began in September, when 11 women sued the Housing Authority, alleging staggering violations of the Fair Housing Act. They contended that maintenance workers forced residents to live in “deplorable conditions” unless they traded sexual favors with them. While the abuse allegations date back several years, the settlement will be limited to those who were abused within the last three years or whose homes were left unrepaired as a result of prior harassment.
In one of the more lurid anecdotes, Clinton Coleman, the maintenance supervisor of Gilmor Homes northwest of downtown, forced women to live in houses with peeling paint, rodent infestations, roach infestations, gas leaks, toilet leaks, electrical problems, and malfunctioning windows if they spurned him. One woman revealed that when she asked Coleman to have something in her apartment fixed, Coleman exposed himself and asked, “What can you do with this?” She traded sexual favors with him in return for repairs because she feared for her daughter’s safety.
Another woman said that Coleman and one of the workers under him, Michael Robertson, demanded sex in return for getting rid of bugs and fixing pipes. When she refused, they forced her to go almost two years without heat. Coleman and Robertson were fired in October. According to Hansel, every other abuser “we could identify” has been fired as well.
In a colossal understatement, housing commissioner Paul Graziano said that “mistakes have been made here, and some of them have been very serious.” He promised that changes would be made to ensure that Baltimore’s public housing residents can live in “peace and dignity” and that there will never be a next time for what he called “indignity of an indescribable nature.” Among other things, employees will receive ongoing sexual harassment training, and a new computerized system will allow residents to set up repairs without going through housing authority staff.
Incredibly, this debauchery could have come to light several months earlier. However, in December 2014, the Housing Authority shut down its inspector general’s office–the very office intended to uncover this behavior. At the time, officials cited budget constraints. Whatever money may have been saved by this move has been more than wiped out by the loss of trust and peace of mind these women, and indeed all public housing residents in Baltimore, suffered in this case.
It goes without saying that every single one of the animals who took advantage of these women needs to go to prison for as long as legally possible. The mentality displayed here is no different from the mentality that caused Bridgegate. Both cases involve a breach of one of the most sacred trusts in a democracy–that government will not willfully put innocent citizens in harm’s way. However, unless I’m very wrong, it’s very likely that people higher up the chain of command in the Housing Authority knew about this and did nothing. If that’s the case, then justice will not be served if the maintenance workers and supervisors are the only ones in orange jumpsuits. What happened here is simply unacceptable, and cannot ever be allowed to happen again anywhere in this country–ever.
