Marblehead resident Terri Tauro grew up in public housing, and it is a lived experience that she will now bring to the Marblehead Housing Authority’s Board of Commissioners.
“I lived on Barnard Hawkes Court,” she said. “I was there from 3 months old until I was 18.”
On Wednesday, the Marblehead Select Board and the Housing Authority’s commissioners unanimously appointed the former 8th Essex District candidate to fill the vacancy created after former commissioner Joan Cutler resigned in September.
Tauro said she got acquainted with tenant concerns and issues on the stump before the Democratic primary in September.
“I knocked on all of the doors in Marblehead’s public housing,” said Tauro. “I also held ice cream socials at all of Marblehead’s senior housing.”
She said public housing — which she made a centerpiece in her campaign’s platform — is a good fit for her. She wants to help cultivate better communication between the board and tenants.
“I would like to build a bridge,” she said. “The housing authority could use some fresh blood.”
She looks forward to her service to the housing authority. She said she would be listening out of the gate.
“You have to get the lay of the land a little bit,” she said. “You never go in gangbusters when you don’t know exactly what’s happening, what’s going on.”
Tauro works in the Marblehead Harbormaster’s Office. She is the Marblehead Municipal Employees Union president.
Tauro’s interim appointment ends in June. She will need to run for the remaining years of Cutler’s term in the next municipal election, and she intends on pulling the necessary nomination papers when Town Clerk Robin Michaud makes them available in March.