Marblehead Woman Lauded for Affordable Housing Work

The former MassHousing senior production manager for homeownership received the Norma Moseley Housing Advocate of the Year Award.

MassHousing announced the selection of Virginia Healy-Kenney of Marblehead last week.

Virginia is also the chairwoman of the Marblehead Fair Housing Committee and serves as chairman of the Christian Service panel at Old North First Church of Christ in Marblehead.

Virginia, who retired from MassHousing last year, received the award for her excellence and advocacy in the areas of consumer counseling and fair housing over a distinguished career that spanned more than four decades, according to a MassHousing news release.

The award is named after the late Norma F. Moseley, who spent more than 20 years at the Ecumenical Social Action Committee, Inc. (ESAC), and dedicated her life to advocating for fairness and justice for all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, income, age, or disability, and combating patterns of consumer abuse and other homeownership-related problems.

Prior to joining MassHousing in the early 1990s, Healy-Kenney worked at the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Fannie Mae. 

“I was honored and surprised to receive the Norma Moseley award from the MMBA,” said Healy Kenney. “My career in public service was by choice and proved to very rewarding. To me, this award is a general recognition by the lending industry that those of us dedicated to public service have a special purpose and that it is a career that young students should consider joining.” 

The MMBA’s Sousa said Healy-Kenney’s selection for the award involved consideration of her accomplishments over the full scope of her career. “The Norma Moseley award is special to our organization,” said Sousa. “Virginia has made a difference in affordable housing not only here in Massachusetts but nationally over her career. She is an inspiration and I am sure Norma would be pleased with our selection.

MassHousing is the state's affordable housing bank. 

According to a Boston Globe article it "provided a record-breaking $965.3 million in financing in fiscal year 2012 as thousands of homeowners flocked to its new program for low-cost, low down payment loans that don’t require mortgage insurance."