On Wednesday (March 22) at 5:30pm, the City Council's Neighborhood & Long Term Planning Committee will hold a hearing on proposed amendments to expand the Affordable Housing Overlay.
This hearing will be chaired by Councillor Dennis Carlone, and it is unlikely to see any decisive legislative action. (Further legislative action will likely occur in the next Housing Committee hearing, which is yet to be scheduled.) Instead, Councillor Carlone has publicly indicated that he intends to spend the hearing fear-mongering, using Reagan-era stigmas about underfunded public housing to claim that large buildings are "bad for community".
If you can speak to the quality of Cambridge affordable housing, or if you live in or near a building with more than 30 apartments in it and you find your sense of community still intact, or if you understand the transformative power of and immense need for affordable housing and want to see substantially more of it produced, please consider emailing the City Council and/or speaking at Wednesday's hearing.
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If you haven't, please sign and share our petition to support expanding the AHO: link
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Then send an email to the City Council at [email protected] and [email protected] (please BCC [email protected]).
- Signup for public comment for Wednesday's 5:30pm hearing will be available here on Tuesday. (If you have a story you want someone to read on your behalf, please email [email protected].)
For more information on the proposed amendments, please read our FAQ on expanding the Affordable Housing Overlay (and feel free to email us any questions). But as a reminder, when asked what affordable housing would mean to them, some of the more than 21,000 people on the Cambridge Housing Authority waitlist said:
- “Working just one job and being able to be more present in my children’s lives.”
- “Affordable for me is not having to choose between food and a roof over my head.”
- “It would mean the world to my family. We can have stability. We would have our own space instead of sharing a room.”
P.S. Don't forget to RSVP for our party Thu 3/30 with Abundant Housing Massachusetts! There will be free food and drinks!
P.P.S. If someone forwarded you this email, you can subscribe to ABC's mailing list to stay informed.