Wu names city councilor as new head of the BHA

Update: Bok will resign on April 28.

Mayor Wu announced today she's named Councilor Kenzie Bok (Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Fenway, Mission Hill) as the next administrator of the Boston Housing Authority, which provides housing and housing vouchers for 62,000 Bostonians.

Bok will take over once current Administrator Kate Bennett steps down this summer. Before winning her first term on the council in 2019, Bok served as senior advisor for policy and planning at the BHA. She also formerly taught classes on housing justice at Harvard.

In a statement, Wu said:

The Boston Housing Authority has been a lifeline for generations of Boston families, and in this moment of housing crisis, the BHA must be a model for housing as health, safety, opportunity, and community. Kenzie brings a deep commitment to our BHA communities along with an expansive vision of how public housing should anchor our neighborhoods and city - I’m thrilled for her leadership and look forward to building on the strong foundation set under Kate’s stewardship by the entire BHA team. We are all so grateful for Kate’s decades of service to our residents and work to ensure a smooth transition over the coming months.”

Bok said:

Public housing is a public good, and all of Boston benefits when our public housing communities are strong. I’m so excited to return to BHA to put our residents and voucher-holders at the heart of everything our City does, by providing safe high-quality housing for every family and by ensuring the best access to jobs, services, and all the opportunities Boston has to offer. To truly have a City for all, we have to boldly invest at the local, state, and federal levels in the BHA housing that continues to anchor so many of our communities. I was lucky to learn from my predecessors in this role, Kate Bennett and Bill McGonagle, that residents come first at BHA, and I’m looking forward to working with Kate over the coming transition to continue that essential focus.