A Bruce Rozet

"I'm honest. I'm doing the legal thing. Suddenly, we find ourselves on the receiving end of a lot of noise." --Brentwood multimillionaire A. Bruce Rozet commenting on his current troubles with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. A1

U.S. Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown is one of President Clinton's most popular and, by many accounts, most effective Cabinet members. He has earned respect in both political and business circles as he moves adroitly to expand the sale of U.S. goods and services abroad. But undermining his reputation are persistent questions about his disclosures--or, some would say, lack of candor in his disclosures--about personal business deals and investments.

The suspended landlord of nearly 350 federally subsidized housing projects told a congressional panel today that he tried repeatedly to improve conditions at problem developments but was denied help by government officials. "HUD's administration and oversight of inner-city problem housing has been abysmal and verges on the criminal," said A.

As the party with the most accurate knowledge of the history of Belle Haven Apartments in Prince George's County, Md., and of its current operations, I must strongly object to the recent, unwarranted mischaracterization of the apartment complex in "Secretary of Commerce Linked to Slum Housing" (April 9). Belle Haven is a thriving apartment community, home to 250 families of mostly low and moderate income. The community is composed primarily of hard-working families who are a genuine aid to management in maintaining Belle Haven as a desirable place to live.

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno has ordered Justice Department investigators to expand their investigation of Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown to pursue evidence that he may have illegally concealed his investment in a trouble-plagued, low-income apartment complex in suburban Maryland, according to knowledgeable sources. The order was issued earlier this week in response to reports that Brown had reported his investment on his annual financial disclosure forms inaccurately.

Citing mismanagement and unpaid debts, the Department of Housing and Urban Development's regional director is recommending that the government repossess two of California's most troubled housing projects from their private owners. Robert J. De Monte, Western regional administrator of HUD, sent letters earlier this month to Washington requesting authority to foreclose on Ujima Village in Los Angeles and Geneva Towers in San Francisco.

Federal officials, launching an aggressive effort to clean up publicly subsidized housing, Monday seized control of a run-down, 300-unit project in South-Central Los Angeles that authorities say has been plagued by drug trafficking, gang gatherings and dilapidated facilities.

She held Ricky and combed his hair. She patted infant Kerry's head. She hugged Steven. And she kissed Lakita on both cheeks. Their teen-age mothers beamed adoringly, some with tears in their eyes. Madame Jihan Sadat, widow of Egypt's Anwar Sadat, was touring Crittenton Center for Young Woman and Infants with the same graciousness and style that she exhibited later in the evening at a black-tie dinner where she was awarded Crittenton's first International Humanitarian Award. When Dr. Sharon G.

Separating fact from fantasy in Hollywood is rarely easy, and such has been the case with one of the area's most famous landmarks, the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Site of the first Academy Awards, the old hotel in recent times had fallen from the grandeur that had attracted stars and dignitaries for decades. Just before it closed early in January, 1984, it had an occupancy rate of 5%. Its walls were covered with graffiti.

When Ronald Reagan was elected President in 1980, developer John L. Allen told a city official in Durham, N.C., that his firm would have to "switch aisles" to win federal funds for a housing project for the elderly. Replacing a Democratic Administration with a Republican one meant wrenching changes in the nation's housing policy, a new cast at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and profitable new opportunities for developers with the right connections. But not everything changed.