Boston’s Housing Authority will have a new leader as Mayor Marty Walsh’s administration embarks on a plan to pump significant new funding into housing over the next half-decade.

Walsh on Thursday appointed Kate Bennett as the administrator of the Boston Housing Authority, the agency she has been running as acting director since the July retirement of Bill McGonagle. The authority provides affordable housing to more than 58,000 residents in Boston and surrounding communities.

Since 1998, Bennet has worked at the BHA, first as a senior planner and eventually serving as senior deputy administrator. Before the BHA, she managed affordable housing programs for Chelsea and Newton, according to Walsh’s office.

As BHA’s director of planning and real estate development, Bennet “played a key role in redevelopment initiatives” like the Washington Beech development in Roslindale and the Maverick development in East Boston, Walsh’s office said in a press release. Bennett holds a degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and lives in Roslindale.

During his State of the City address last week, Walsh said his administration plans to newly invest $500 million over five years in housing, an infusion that City Hall described as groundbreaking. He also announced that the city will begin issuing city-funded rental vouchers to subsidize the rents for individuals most in need.