More than a Lot

THE BID THAT HARVARD has offered on land occupied by the St. Paul's parish rectory and parking lot at the corner of Mount Auburn and DeWolfe Streets includes plans to build some subsidized housing on the site. The University's main priority remains more housing for its own affiliates. But its willingness to provide some low-income housing--in the Cambridge market it has helped to inflate--speaks for the efforts of the neighborhood and Harvard groups that have pressured the University on its development plans in recent years.

Harvard has destroyed over 70 homes in the immediate area in the last 40 years. Now Cambridge's largest landlord is at last taking some of the responsibility for the housing problem that plagues the community it occupies.

The University has built some subsidized housing in the past--for example, following protests of its development plans in 1970. In the recent bid, Harvard apparently included its proposal for low-to-moderate-income housing in its package before the parish asked all the bidders to do the same. That's an indication that the University was sensitive to the concerns voiced by parish members. In a church-sponsored survey, a majority of St. Paul's parishioners favored building mixed-income housing on the property.

Regardless of the University's motives, this year's bid to build some low-income homes is a far cry from Harvard's putting up metal grates to prevent the homeless from taking shelter on Leverett House heat vents last year. Of course the St. Paul's lot is still just a lot. Harvard's plan to build mixed-income housing is still just a plan. But at a time when Harvard has trouble housing its own students and faculty, the University does seem to have had a change of heart.