For more than two years, the Cambridge Housing Justice Coalition, made up of activist groups and concerned Cambridge residents focused on housing as a human right, has organized toward making social housing a reality in our city. Our working group studied and learned from examples throughout the world, worked with residents and councillors to discuss and refine our ideas and made a series of public presentations to educate councillors and residents about social housing. We are so excited that social housing is now clearly on the city’s agenda, with a city task force that meets for the first time on Wednesday.
What is social housing? It is permanently affordable housing that is publicly controlled and governed by its residents and the community. Around the world, this takes many forms, from the limited-profit and municipally owned rental housing of Vienna to the public homeownership sector of Singapore that makes up more than 75 percent of the market. Social housing is distinct from, but related to, other government-supported housing such as buildings owned by the Cambridge Housing Authority or nonprofits such as Homeowners Rehab Inc. or Just A Start in Cambridge, namely because it has formal resident governance and is publicly controlled.
Why social housing? Cambridge is in a housing affordability crisis, especially for its most low-income residents, with thousands of households on the waiting list for affordable housing. Cambridge is taking many steps to build housing of all types. But market-rate development, while it can lower median rents or slow their growth, structurally cannot serve those at the lowest incomes, so it alone cannot address this crisis. Existing tools for financing affordable housing continue to help, but Cambridge remains not on pace to meet its goal of 3,500 affordable units by 2030. In particular, the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit, while immensely successful and responsible for most affordable housing built in recent decades, has caps and rules that constrain its ability to scale and the kind of mixed-income housing it can support. Social housing is a way to build the homes the market won’t, at scale, and ensure that it is controlled permanently by the public good and by the residents it serves.
Social housing has taken off in recent years in the United States, mostly in the form of mixed-income, multifamily rental housing first created in Montgomery County, Maryland. The motivation for that model was to fill a gap in the financing picture, in particular to build affordable housing outside the LIHTC paradigm. Since Montgomery County, a number of other cities and states have moved forward with various versions of social housing: Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta and Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Cambridge is joining them. The first concrete step was in September, when the City Council passed a policy order committing Cambridge to advancing social housing and asking the city manager to take steps to do so. A Housing Committee hearing was held in December at which CHJC, the Cambridge Housing Authority and the Joint Center for Housing Studies presented on how Cambridge might move social housing forward. Throughout these months, CHJC carried out public presentations and comments of support to build understanding and enthusiasm.
After the election of a new council in 2026, social housing has moved forward rapidly. The mayor and city manager have recently announced a task force, initially proposed by CHJC, with representation from CHJC and the Alliance of Cambridge Tenants alongside a number of experts, legislators and affordable housing stakeholders, including the CHA and state representative Mike Connolly in an advisory role. Its working groups will be chaired by councillors Ayah Al-Zubi and Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler. We encourage you to attend the first meeting virtually; there will be no public comment, but you can email remarks and questions to acampbellschwartz@cambridgema.gov and mlee@cambridgema.gov.
The city has backed this task force with dedicated resources and a concrete plan. It named advancing social housing one of its top budget priorities for the 2027 fiscal year. Further, in a roundtable on city-owned parcels, it identified a city-owned, 4-acre site on Larch Road in West Cambridge as the likely home for a pilot social housing project.
Support will come from beyond Cambridge as well. A 2025 state housing bond bill included funds that could support two to three social housing pilots across Massachusetts. We intend to push Cambridge to put forward a proposal next year to access that support for its own project.
We are proud of how far Cambridge has come in moving social housing forward, but there is much still to do. The task force’s work will be important, and we invite residents to follow its meetings and recommendations. In parallel, CHJC will hold public presentations and discussions on social housing throughout the summer and fall, educating residents on its core features, what it might look like in Cambridge and the key decision points that will be voted on in coming months. The first presentation will be 6:30 to 8 p.m. July 16 at the Citywide Senior Center, 806 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Join us and support making social housing a reality!
Kavish Gandhi
On behalf of the Cambridge Housing Justice Coalition
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