Boston Public Housing Praised for Turnaround

The city’s public housing--once tarnished by swastikas and a reputation for tolerating racism--has turned itself into a model civil rights enforcer, according to a federal report due out today.

The Boston Housing Authority has radically changed its response to civil rights complaints and has drastically reduced harassment and discrimination, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said in the report outlined in Thursday’s Boston Globe.

The report called the agency “a national model to be replicated by other public housing authorities.”

“We went from top to bottom and changed the entire culture,” said Sandra B. Henriquez, the agency’s director since 1996. “We adopted a recognition of the fact that we all really are different and that our mission is to find ways to see through those differences.”

HUD’s report follows a $1.5-million lawsuit brought last year by 13 tenants. Along with ordering the city to settle the case, the federal agency issued a scathing report in February 1999 accusing the agency of allowing civil rights abuses to flourish.

Three months later, HUD reported little progress and a series of complaints, including a black resident who reported his car had been smeared with feces and a white resident accused of threatening to sic a pit bull on a Latino child.

The report said that in addition to settling the suit, the city has shown marked improvement in all areas, including more minority officers to mediate disputes and increased patrols.

Additionally, public housing transfers are possible, and a hotline has been established.

Meanwhile, employees must train in civil rights and dispute resolution.