Cambridge City Council is considering changes to the Multifamily Housing Ordinance that would make it harder to build the homes Cambridge residents need. Tell the Council to REJECT the regressive CDD and Zusy/Flaherty amendments that will block housing and raise rents!

This Wednesday, September 16 at 11:00 a.m., the Council’s Housing and Neighborhood & Long-Term Planning Committees will meet to consider deeply flawed amendments to Cambridge’s Multifamily Housing Ordinance (MFH). We need your support! Email City Council now to urge them to protect the 1000+ new homes and 150+ permanently affordable homes in the pipeline! 

Members of A Better Cambridge fought for policies that allow more homes for our neighbors at all incomes. Newly proposed amendments create new restrictions, resulting in fewer homes for our neighbors, including working families and essential workers who make our city an inclusive, welcoming community. Meanwhile, wealthy homeowners are funding a misinformation campaign to reinstate racist, classist exclusionary zoning and ban apartment buildings in their neighborhoods. 

What You Can Do

The Councillors need to hear from you! Email City Council at [email protected] before the hearing. CC [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected], and BCC us at [email protected]. (This meeting will not have public comment.)

What to Say

When you email, it’s important to let City Council know: 

• The ordinance is working. CDD’s own analysis shows more homes, equitably distributed, with a much stronger affordable housing pipeline than prior to passage. Don’t weaken what's working, and don’t harm the 150+ permanently affordable inclusionary homes already moving forward.
• Reject the CDD and Flaherty/Zusy amendments. These amendments would weaken Cambridge’s multifamily zoning, decrease housing production, and increase rents. Cambridge’s housing rules should be opening doors, not closing them. 

• To be a Welcoming Community, Cambridge must build housing. Cambridge has taken actions to reiterate its status as a Welcoming Community in opposition to the Trump administration. But when local families can’t find homes they can afford in Cambridge and we only welcome the wealthy, our welcoming status rings hollow.

• Increasing setbacks and open space requirements mean fewer homes can be built, particularly permanently affordable inclusionary homes. There are better ways, like an average unit size limit or condo conversion ordinance, to ensure more homes and affordability. Cambridge already has some of the strongest green building, climate resilience, historic preservation, and stormwater management requirements in the country. Adding overly restrictive requirements would reduce the number and type of homes without meaningfully advancing our environmental goals or our housing goals.

Feel free to personalize with your own experience about housing! A personal story about housing costs or impacts to your community is often the most powerful thing you can say.

Share this alert with neighbors, friends, and anyone who cares about housing affordability in Cambridge. Thank you for standing up for a Cambridge with more homes that residents can afford!

A Better Cambridge
https://www.abettercambridge.org/