Kenzie Bok
Kenzie Bok has led the Boston Housing Authority (BHA) since her appointment by Mayor Michelle Wu in August 2023. Her focus at the BHA is on:
- providing high-quality public housing
- making that housing a platform for economic opportunity and empowerment for BHA residents
- growing the number of public housing opportunities available to Boston families
- furthering the Mayor’s climate agenda by making Boston’s public housing fossil fuel free, and
- setting the BHA on a stable course for long-term financial sustainability.
Bok previously served two terms as the Boston City Councilor for District 8, leading as chair of the committees on Ways and Means, PILOT, Boston’s Covid-19 Recovery, and City Services and Innovation Technology. In housing policy, she drove more funding for Xity vouchers and homeownership, co-authored Boston’s novel Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing zoning amendment, led the repeal of parking minimums for majority-affordable developments, and spearheaded the appropriation process for Boston’s American Rescue Plan funds, which yielded more than $250 million for the City’s affordable housing programs. Bok was also instrumental in the creation of PowerCorpsBOS, the City’s new green jobs program.
Prior to elected office, Bok was at the Boston Housing Authority as its Senior Advisor for Policy and Planning, working for previous Administrators Billy McGonagle and Kate Bennett on initiatives including resident empowerment, resident savings programs, redevelopment, voucher payment standards policy, and more. In civic life, Bok helped lead the successful 2016 ballot campaign for Boston to adopt the Community Preservation Act, and now serves on Boston’s Community Preservation Committee. She also sits on the PIC, Boston’s MassHire Workforce Board.
Bok graduated from Harvard College and earned her MPhil and Ph.D. in the history of philosophy at Cambridge University (St John’s College), which she attended as a Marshall Scholar. She formerly held a lectureship at Harvard, teaching seminars on the philosopher John Rawls, “Justice in Housing”, and “Politics: Theory & Practice”. As an historian, she holds a seat on the Commemoration Commission, which is charged with preparations in the lead-up to America 250 in 2026 and Boston’s 400th in 2030. Bok is a lifelong Bostonian, raised in the small neighborhood of Bay Village in the heart of the City.
