City Council Lauded for Move Toward Affordable Housing

After the City Council's unanimous resolution on Monday night to examine the acquisition of an affordable housing complex through eminent domain, many are hailing it as a step in the right direction for Cambridge tenants.

An apartment complex called 929 House, located four blocks from Harvard Yard on Mass Ave., is being sold to Grove Properties, a Connecticut firm. The complex, with a 57-tenant capacity, currently houses 43 low- and moderate-income residents.

The council's resolution means City Manager Robert W. Healy will survey the feasibility of 'eminent domain,' or the taking over of the property by paying its market price to the owners.

"It reflects there's a consensus on the council that there's housing crisis. We're running out of affordable housing," said Katherine Triantafillou, the city councillor who introduced the resolution.

The council took similar action in regard to property at 808 Memorial Drive and in North Cambridge.

Affordable housing advocates stressed that the council was using 929 House as a warning to property owners of the council's vigilance on affordable housing.

"They're using 929 as an example of what the city will do to protect residents," said Toy Lim, a community organizer for the Campaign to Save 2000 Homes.

Grove Properties and the City of Cambridge had come to a verbal agreement last summer.

Their plan called for Grove to keep all affordable units in exchange for $2.3 million low-interest loan to compensate the company's loss from controlling rents.

"It was a premature announcement, and everybody was shocked [that the agreement] disappeared," said Councillor Michael A. Sullivan.

Councillors said they were not pleased by Grove's unwillingness to negotiate in good faith.

Officers of the company, however, said that the deal was not in line with their organizational mission.

City councillors said to lose 929 House and its 57 units of affordable housing would be a devastating blow for Cambridge and would quicken the outward exodus from the city.

"For your schoolteacher with two kids, it's almost impossible to find housing. You're not talking about people on welfare," Triantafillou said.

However, despite the impassioned pleas in Sullivan Chamber in City Hall, some concerns over political posturing arose.

"I thought some grandstanding was going on. People were definitely playing to the crowd," Sullivan said.

While the fate of 929 House is still undetermined, affordable housing advocates were pleased that the owners of the building got a taste of Cambridge politics.

"Especially with 929, the owners got a surprise [of] how much a lot of tenants care about their community...I am sure the owners weren't ready for this," Lim said.

"Tenants want action and not just talking [about affordable housing] at the council," she said.