Show Notes
In this episode of the Dover Download podcast, Deputy City Manager Christopher Parker chats with Dian Maruca, executive director of the Dover Housing Authority, as part of the podcast's continuing look at local nonprofits and social service agencies. Maruca, who has led the authority since March 2026 after joining as deputy director in 2023, shares how a teenage landscaping job at the Newmarket Housing Authority grew into a career in subsidized housing. She says that hands-on experience shapes her respect for her maintenance and administrative staff.
Maruca explains that the authority's mission is to provide safe, decent, affordable housing, with residents paying 30 percent of their gross monthly income. She outlines its public housing for seniors and people with disabilities, its family properties, and its voucher program. She also describes how staff quietly transfer aging residents into units where they can age in place. All waitlists are open except the Housing Choice Voucher list, which has been closed for several years because of tight federal funding. She notes a recent rise in applicants declining units, which hurts the authority's funding.
Maruca also clarifies that the authority is quasi-governmental and independent of the city, overseen by a board of commissioners. She closes with ways to donate or volunteer and directs listeners to DoverHousingAuthority.org.
In This Week in Dover History, we revisit 1677, when 34 Dover residents petitioned the King of England to keep the town under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, reflecting their concerns about shifting political control in the aftermath of King Philip's War.
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