More than four years after she first assumed the role of head of the Boston Housing Authority, the chief of the city’s largest landlord was honored by her counterparts in the private sector as the Greater Boston Real Estate Board’s Rental Housing Association named Sandra B. Henriquez as the 2000 Excellence in Public Service Award winner.

The award, which is presented annually to someone who best exemplifies excellence in public service benefiting the rental housing community, was given at RHA’s annual President’s Awards dinner last week in Boston.

Henriquez, who was named chief executive officer of the BHA in April 1996 and is the secretary of housing for the city of Boston, said her agency has taken a number of steps toward making it operate more efficiently and being more consumer-friendly.

One of her top priorities, Henriquez said, was getting the BHA’s budget in order.

“I can still remember that first meeting,” she said. “I looked around the room and asked if anyone could tell me what the operating budget for the month was.” In response, she recalled, she was told what the expenses were. “I had to ask three times,” she said. When she finally got an answer, she saw such items as overhead weren’t included and was told the money for those other items came from another fund and everything was reconciled at the end of the year. “That’s when I knew I was in trouble,” she said. She reported that the BHA is on track again and being run in a more fiscally responsible manner.

Henriquez also said the BHA has been working to improve its customer service, and recalled a time when she called to speak to an administrator “and I was told, ‘She’s at lunch, call back later,’ click.” When she immediately called back and identified herself, Henriquez said the person apologized and said, “Oh sorry, Ms. Henriquez. I didn’t know it was you.” Since that incident, one of her goals has been to work on improving communications with residents and others who interact with the agency.

In further efforts to get the agency to run more efficiently, Henriquez said the agency has been working to reduce the number of vacant BHA-owned housing units. “When people heard we were doing this, they thought it was amazing,” she said. “That’s what we’re supposed to be doing.” However, she said, the public doesn’t always think of a government agency working to be efficient. The BHA has also changed some of its job titles to be more in line with widely accepted terms within the industry, rather than known only within the BHA.

The award came on the heels of an announcement last month by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that further lauded the work of the BHA. That report said the agency had made “substantial progress in addressing racial and ethnic harassment at BHA properties.

“The Boston Housing Authority has made substantial improvements in response to all 53 of our recommendations,” HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo said in a statement. “I congratulate Mayor [Thomas} Menino and Administrator Henriquez for their success in improving civil rights there.”

Henriquez discussed the city’s goal of bringing thousands more units of housing on line within the next few years. “Government cannot do it alone, and the private sector cannot do it alone,” she said, asking for cooperation between the two entities.

Before becoming CEO of the BHA, Henriquez worked at the agency in various capacities from 1977 to 1983, and had also been a principal at Maloney Properties, a private management firm that worked with nonprofit housing. She has also worked as the director of housing management and tenant services for the state Department of Housing and Community Development.

Aesthetic Effect
Donald C. Dolben, chairman of The Dolben Co. in Burlington, received the RHA Industry Excellence Award, given to someone in the rental housing industry that demonstrates community and civic involvement and professionalism in all aspects of multifamily development.

A third-generation family member in the business, Dolben joined The Dolben Co. in 1961. Dolben recalled when he first entered the business how those in the industry used typewriters and carbon paper as they were putting together deals. “How did we ever get anything done without fax machines?” he asked.

The Dolben Co.’s real estate portfolio includes about 8,000 residential units located in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maryland and Michigan.

The Mission Main public housing complex was selected by RHA as the recipient of the Community Excellence Award in the affordable housing rental community category. Located in Boston’s Mission Hill neighborhood, the complex last year began a major revitalization project that included demolishing 38 existing buildings at the site in three phases.

The redevelopment consists of a three-phase project to convert the existing public housing facility into a total of 535 units, including townhouse-style buildings, a mid-rise building and a community center with daycare facilities able to support 120 children.

The redevelopment was officially started late last year, and is nearing completion.

In the market rate category for the Community Excellence Award, the Fenway Garden Apartments complex was honored this year. Norm Levenson, president and chief executive officer of the apartments owner, The Copley Group, said he was excited the company was honored after working for more than two years on a major improvement plan for the apartments.

The apartments consist of about 700 units in 30 buildings in a three-block area in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood. “We own about 25 percent of the neighborhood, so if we do something in our buildings, it generally has a big impact,” Levenson said. He said upgrades to his apartment buildings have included bicycle storage rooms in the basement, new windows, new common area carpeting and furnishings, improved landscaping and new wrought iron fences. As apartments turn over, new kitchens and baths are installed in many of the units.

“Others, either through competition or just wanting to make their properties look good, have also upgraded, and it’s had a great aesthetic effect for the whole neighborhood.”