Housing Department
Our Mission
To make the City of Cambridge a livable community for its residents and to support their right to quality homes that are affordable, safe, and healthy.
We will accomplish our mission by...
- Ensuring the reduction in the number of housing vacancies and abandoned properties via a Land Bank receivership program.
- Increasing the quality and affordability of new housing stock by partnering with private and/or non-profit developers.
- Advocating for renters’ rights and bringing attention to landlords’ responsibility to effect repairs to maintain a livable environment.
- Promoting social engagement activities to create a sense of community and bring awareness to the revitalization efforts being carried out in all neighborhoods and communities in Cambridge.
- Expanding access to realizing the American Dream of homeownership by sponsoring homeownership education classes, creating workforce development opportunities, and providing financial assistance for first time homebuyers.
- Supporting the beautification of the City of Cambridge by providing gap funding through federal, state and city government grants to assist homeowners with emergency repairs, rehabilitation, and maintenance of their homes.
Our Vision for FY25
The equitable distribution of resources across all five (5) Wards with a strategic focus on the revitalization and maintenance of existing home stock with a mix of new home construction in communities that are ready to experience growth and development.
Our Values
The work of the Cambridge Department of Housing is to develop and promote quality, affordable, safe, and healthy homes across all (5) wards, directing residents to housing resources they need to thrive at every age. This work is radical. It demands that we challenge systems. It requires our action and collaboration. It means fighting historical predatory lending and investment policies, local resistance to progress, and deeply rooted patterns of segregation in our city.
Our Goal
To remove blight in our community. To increase affordable housing stock. To build capacity for community growth through workforce development initiatives. To create generational wealth through community re-investments and produce public stewards committed to ensuring the equitable administration of housing as a human right.
We will accomplish our goal with a focus on providing...
Equitable and Affordable Housing Opportunities: We prioritize housing equity for all residents regardless of income and leverage grant dollars to create alternative streams of funding for maintenance and upkeep so that homeowners can choose and remain in quality housing that is affordable, safe, and healthy.
Collaborative Community Engagements: This is our work, but we do not work alone. We are part of a public system – with health, safety, education, transit, and others – that works strategically and transparently with advocates, developers, and elected officials to address housing challenges toward making Cambridge a racially equitable city of choice for current and future residents.
Empowerment Opportunities: We celebrate access to quality, affordable, safe, and healthy housing, and we fight for those who lack that stability. To this end, we try to promote Homeownership Education and Workforce Development Training opportunities critical for stimulating economic growth and creating community wealth-building opportunities for our residents.
Sustained Resource Allocation: We use everything we have – our professional insights, hands-on experience, and data-informed approaches – to influence our long-term planning and our ability to be nimble and responsive to the residents of Cambridge, especially those whose housing stability is threatened.