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Boston Housing Authority - Mayor Menino takes the boards off public housing

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Contact: Lydia Agro, BHA Communications Director, 617-988-4109,

Mayor Thomas M. Menino continued his pledge to take steps to combat the city’s housing crisis by taking the boards off of 24 more long-term vacant units of public housing on June 6, 2001. The Mayor was joined by BHA Administrator Sandra Henriquez, Marc Slotnick of the state Department of Housing and Community Development, and tenant leaders. The 24 units, in the Orient Heights housing development in East Boston at 41-49 Vallar Road, are part of Leading the Way: A Housing Strategy for Boston which was released by the Mayor last year.

“Today’s ribbon cutting represents yet another step forward in our ongoing effort to provide affordable housing for families in need in the City of Boston,” said Mayor Menino. “We’re making substantial progress in our effort to renovate vacant public housing units in the city.”

Since July of last year, the Boston Housing Authority has occupied 401 units that were previously vacant in addition to the 24 units at Orient Heights that will be occupied shortly. The BHA also has received permits to begin work on another 144 units, the majority of which will be available for tenants later this year.

With unprecedented financial assistance from the city combined with federal and state dollars, the BHA has been able to reduce the number of vacant public housing units substantially. Part of the BHA’s success can be attributed to the use of on-site maintenance and in-house construction crews which help cut costs and get the work done more efficiently.

“The Boston Housing Authority is committed to having all of its vacant units occupied in the next three years,” said BHA Administrator Sandra Henriquez. “We are well on the way to reaching that goal and we plan to continue to occupy as many of our units as we can with the resources we have.”

Orient Heights is the third largest development in Massachusetts funded by the Department of Housing and Community Development. DHCD has also committed $5.5 million to install new kitchens and bathrooms and for the waterproofing of exterior walls in 137 units at Orient Heights.

“The BHA’s own workforce did a superb job of renovating these units and proved that the current management team can do high quality construction at a very reasonable cost-less than going out to bid. We’d love the BHA to do more projects this way,” said Marc Slotnick of the Department of Housing and Community Development.

Like Orient Heights, some BHA developments have seen a large increase in occupied units while other recently reoccupied units have been scattered throughout the city. For example, 66 units, the majority of which were long-term vacant units, have been reoccupied at the Mary Ellen McCormack housing development in South Boston since July 1 of last year. The Cathedral development in the South End had about 48 vacant units reoccupied along with 40 units at Bromley-Heath in Jamaica Plain. The 24 units at Orient Heights, which have been vacant for approximately ten years, represent the last long-term vacant units at that site.