City Council Takes Next Steps in Bid To Combat Affordable Housing Crisis

The Cambridge City Council spent more than a year debating an upzoning proposal before passing the legislation last month, marking a new phase in the fight against the housing crisis in Cambridge.

But over the span of just a few hours, the Council introduced three new, unique efforts to combat the crisis in a Monday meeting.

These efforts, which would address Cambridge broker fees and create an affordable rent incentive program, are the Council’s attempt to add more tools to their “toolbox” to increase affordable housing in the city.

A week ago, the Council learned that it does not have permission to ban tenant paid broker fees without the state legislature’s approval. This led the Council to vote to publicly support two pieces of state legislation that would eliminate “junk fees” and “forced broker fees” in Massachusetts.

While Cambridge waits for the state legislature to take action, the Council intends to continue moving with municipal level change. With seven votes in favor, councilors directed Cambridge City Manager Yi-An Huang ’05 to draft a home rule petition allowing the city to end the practice of tenant-paid broker fees.

Councilor Patricia M. Nolan ’80 said in an interview that the statewide bill “would be better” than municipal action — but said both were feasible strategies.

“But meanwhile, if you’re not doing that, let us do it at least,” she said of Cambridge’s home rule petition.

“Part of the reason we’re sending is to say, ‘Hey, there are people who want to do this,’ you now have a home rule from Somerville, Boston and Cambridge,” Nolan added. “Why don’t you just pass a state law to let anybody do it on their own?”

The Council also voted to request that Huang work to develop language to create an affordable rent incentive program.

The proposed program would create monetary incentives — including tax abatements for landlords to charge rent below the market rent — allowing them to make up the income lost on their affordable rental properties.

Tenants who make 80 percent or less of the area median income in Cambridge would be eligible for the program, and would not pay more than 30 percent of their income towards rent.

“That is what the inclusionary program is, and so that’s where we came up with that, Vice Mayor Marc C. McGovern said of the income cut-off. “It would be in line with something that we’re already doing.”

If adopted, the legislation would capitalize on a state law passed in 2023 allowing municipalities to create incentives for below-market rent.

During the meeting, city leadership also discussed the implications of federal funding cuts for the future of government subsidized affordability programs.

“The city traditionally has been able to bail out a lot of those programs, and we’re just not able to do that to the same extent,” McGovern said.

McGovern also discussed the impact of changing funding, which would limit the city’s ability to start new affordability programs.

“We’re going to be under this sort of financial constraint that we have, we haven’t seen in quite some time, and that’s going to limit or impact our ability to start new programs,” McGovern said.

When considering a policy order requesting Huang to draft a zoning petition for maximum unit size, Councilor Paul F. Toner exercised his charter right, citing legal concerns to be addressed by the city solicitor.

The legislation would build off of the recently passed upzoning legislation, enforcing a maximum unit size for new developments and promoting the construction of multifamily houses, rather than larger single family houses.

“I personally just don’t agree with it,” Toner said “I also question the legality of it.”

“We were told earlier in the year, I believe, and I’m confirming this to the city solicitor, that we legally can’t do that now,” Toner said in an interview after the meeting.

The Council will reconsider the legislation in the next regular meeting of the City Council.

—Staff writer Diego García Moreno can be reached at diego.garciamoreno@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Summer E. Rose can be reached at summer.rose@thecrimson.com.