. . . In short, Cambridge residents deserve to be treated like honorable, valued parts of our City . . .

Speeches & Letters

City needs fresh look at affordable housing

Last week's "Chronicle" article on Just-A-Start Corp.'s proposed 16-unit housing complex on Windsor Street illustrates the need for a major overhaul of how Cambridge approaches the issues of affordable housing and the allocation of our Community Preservation Act dollars.

For years, Cambridge’s affordable housing proponents have been pushing dense affordable housing developments into already dense neighborhoods or onto generally undesirable pieces of property. In a Catch-22 that was evident when JAS recently tried to sell its Windsor Street proposal to irate neighbors, the denser a neighborhood already is, the more likely it will be to get more dense affordable housing developments. Even with the help of millions of dollars from the Community Preservation Act, of which 80 percent now goes to providing affordable housing, Cambridge’s housing market is so expensive that exceptional density is needed to make affordable financing work.

Unfortunately, Cambridge's housing advocates consistently fail to realize the folks already living in these dense neighborhoods are people, too. They are lifetime residents, new arrivals, senior citizens and young professionals. Some own, some rent and, for the most part, they're all just trying to get by. Like many of us, when faced with the prospect of new housing developments, they worry about the impact on on-street parking and what still more density will do to their neighborhood. And they would like to have a proactive part in any discussion about development in their neighborhoods.

Unfortunately, JAS refused to appropriately value neighborhood involvement. The corporation only called for a public meeting when the plans were essentially finished, a week before the closing and two weeks before their hearing for the project's special permit. JAS gave the public no meaningful opportunity to comment on what might or what might not work for the neighborhood, saying, in essence, "Your neighborhood is already dense, so you should like this additional dense housing."

All Cambridge residents deserve to be treated better than that. Residents deserve to be able to ask questions and get honest answers. They deserve to have their opinions and ideas weighed when we decide how much housing is going to go where and how we will, or won’t, balance housing with these dense neighborhoods’ need for more open space. In short, Cambridge residents deserve to be treated like honorable, valued parts of our city, not like obstacles for corporations like Just-A-Start to ignore until it is time to knock them down.

Craig Kelley
St. Gerard Terrace