CDA Asks Harvard to Aid Project

Representatives of the Citizen Board and Housing Planning Council of the Cambridge Model Cities program (CDA) have demanded that Harvard take a more active role in guaranteeing low-income housing in a 116-unit housing project at Inman Square.

CDA members also charge that the rental scale of the development ($130-$240) is too high and that there has been "a glaring lack of communication" between the community and the project's three principal sponsors: Harvard, the Cambridge Corporation, and Better Cities, Inc.

Donald C. Moulton, assistant vice president for Government and Community Affairs, denied these charges yesterday and said "We're going to do everything we damn well can" to insure the success of the low-income part of the development.

Oliver Brooks, president of the Cambridge Corporation, a non-profit housing concern partly funded by Harvard and MIT, also denied that the low-income units were in jeopardy, and suggested that the DCA direct its anger toward the Federal government and not Harvard.

Initial plans for the project, located on Cambridge St. near Inman Square, included 41 units of low-income housing. However, the Federal subsidy from the Department of Housing and Urban Development only covered 12 units, as opposed to the expected funding for all 41 units.

As a result, the project's developers are hoping to use state subsidies under the "707 leasing program," which is subject to legislative approval.

S. Clyde Pyle, chairman of the CDA Housing Planning Council, said last night that even if approved, state funds would not take effect until late 1974, and urged Harvard to make the necessary funds available immediately.

"I hereby put Harvard University on direct notice that it is clearly their responsibility for the slum conditions that exist in Cambridge. It is this University that has stated publicly its intentions for community oriented assistance toward low-income housing, I now say: put up or shut up," Pyle demanded in a recent CDA bulletin.

Moulton said yesterday that it has never been Harvard's policy to act directly as a financial developer and that the University would rely on other sources to provide the necessary subsidy.

Harvard's role in this project was to buy the land and sell it at cost to the Cambridge Corporation.

Brooks said last night that there are several alternative paths that the developers can pursue if the legislature does not approve the 707 subsidy, including two other Federal programs.

Brooks also said that he was "moderately confident" that the Federal commitment to the project could somehow be upped to the full 41 units, and that this situation is probably only the beginning of what could be a very acute housing crisis caused by recent cutbacks in the Federal budget.