Affordable Housing’s Leading Women

Sandra Henriquez

Sandra Brooks Henriquez is working to take the Detroit Housing Commission (DHC) to the next level.

In 2019, the longtime leader was named CEO of the agency, the largest owner of rental housing in the Motor City, providing approximately 4,000 housing units for seniors and families. In addition to operating public housing, DHC administers about 6,000 Section 8 vouchers and is looking to do even more.

“The board hired me to jump-start a real estate development program again,” says Henriquez. “Detroit has done a number of HOPE VI redevelopment projects across the city, but every urban area needs more affordable housing. I want to work with neighborhoods and community organizations to jump-start development of resident-centered affordable housing communities. In addition, DHC still owns a number of properties that have not been substantially modernized, a number of senior properties in particular.”

Working with her team, she is looking at different strategies to upgrade DHC properties as well as acquire sites to build new developments, with hopes of hearing hammers next year.

Henriquez was the longtime CEO of the Boston Housing Authority, where she turned a struggling agency into one of the nation’s leading public housing authorities, when she was picked by the Obama administration in 2009 to serve as assistant secretary for public and Indian housing at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). She was the first woman to hold that post.

Detroit was one of the cities Henriquez visited the most while at HUD. Federal officials took possession of DHC in 2005 because of regulatory compliance deficiencies, the distressed condition of its housing units, and other issues. After nearly 10 years, HUD returned DHC to local control in 2015. The agency has made significant progress, and Henriquez is charged with furthering that.

The mother of three describes providing affordable and stable housing as her “vocation and avocation.”

“I believe changing housing for someone might just be what they need to do the other things they’ve dreamt about in their lives for themselves and their family,” says Henriquez.