Cambridge’s City Council meets today at 5 pm and will vote on the proposal to end exclusionary zoning and allow up to 6-story apartments in every neighborhood. Your support is critical to balance the many NIMBY voices who want to maintain this regressive, exclusionary policy in Cambridge.

These new apartments and condos will include subsidized inclusionary units, a range of sizes, and provide many more families and other households with access to Cambridge's world-class resources--schools, parks, transit, jobs, healthcare, and much more!

ABC strongly supports the conceptual framework put together by City staff with input from the Housing Committee. Following a favorable vote at the Housing Committee, the Policy Order now goes before City Council. We need to urge City Council to vote this evening in favor of the Policy Order directing City staff to draft zoning language as the next step toward making that vision a reality.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Tell City Council you support bold action on allowing new apartments in every neighborhood.

Sign up to speak at this evening’s City Council hearing.

Email your support to the City Council - [email protected] (cc the City Clerk - [email protected] and bcc us - [email protected]). 

TALKING POINTS:

The best public comment is personal. Feel free to let City Council know how the high cost of housing has affected you and your community or why you oppose regressive and exclusionary zoning in Cambridge. Below are some talking points to help; feel free to pick and choose:

• The City Council should take bold action to allow up to 6-story apartments in every neighborhood because more housing benefits everyone.
• Cambridge urgently needs lots more housing, but its zoning makes it impossible to build enough new apartments. This zoning was exclusionary from the beginning, designed to enforce segregation by class and race.
• As the city keeps adding more jobs than homes, rents have sky-rocketed and homeownership has become a distant dream for most new families.
• Building more housing will improve affordability for everyone. This includes: 
  • Renters afraid of how much their rent will go up next year
  • Prospective first-time home-buyers who want to start building housing wealth but can’t afford the eye-popping prices
  • Existing homeowners who want to expand so more of their family can live together
  • Middle-income households who don’t qualify for subsidized housing but struggle to afford rent
  • Low-income households who don’t win the lottery for subsidized housing but could move into one of the hundreds of newly-created inclusionary units City staff estimate these changes will create
  • Voucher-holders who can’t find an apartment because there’s not enough available
  • Young people thinking of leaving the area due to housing costs
  • Older parents worried their children can’t afford to move back home
  • New families trying to stay in Cambridge to take advantage of its public schools
  • Everyone who wants to call Cambridge home
• Research shows that new housing lowers nearby rents, benefitting even those who don’t move into new housing themselves. 
• Thank you to the Housing Committee and city staff for doing important work on housing. I support new housing because it makes Cambridge a more affordable and inclusive city.

🙏🙏 Thank you so much for your continued efforts! 🙏🙏

(Sent by Justin Saif on Sept 9, 2024.)