Cambridge Affordable Housing Trust Celebrates 30 Years

The Cambridge community came together on Thursday, May 30, 2019 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Cambridge Affordable Housing Trust.

The Trust was established by the Cambridge City Council in 1988 and organized in 1989 to use funds generated by incentive zoning provisions and other sources to create and preserve affordable housing in Cambridge. For the past thirty years, the Trust has continued this mission, creating and preserving more than 3,000 affordable homes.

The Trust provides funding to assist affordable housing providers in creating new affordable housing, preserving the affordability of existing housing, and rehabilitating multi-family housing. It also provides housing policy and program advice to the City Council, City Manager, and City staff, and offers financial assistance to first-time homebuyers through the City's HomeBridge program. Some of the criteria the Trust uses when reviewing proposals for new programs, policies, and housing developments includes:

• Creation and preservation of long-term affordability
• Creation of family-sized units
• Creation of both rental and homeownership housing that serves a range of incomes
• High quality and sustainable design, including use of energy efficient materials
• Use of Trust funds to leverage funding commitments from other public and private financing sources

The City funds the Trust through direct appropriations and annual funding commitments from the City's budget and/or Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds. In the coming fiscal year, the City's annual commitment to the Affordable Housing Trust will surpass $20 million, bringing the total funding that the Trust has received to $200 million. 

The City has released a report (PDF) commemorating the Trust's accomplishments over the past 30 years.

For more information about the Affordable Housing Trust, visit cambridgema.gov/CDD/housing/housingtrust.