Affordable Cambridge
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Wealthy landowners are pushing housing out of reach. Help us fight back.

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We want to live here.

For 100 years, Cambridge made apartment homes illegal in most of the city.

The rules were written to prioritize the wealthy and keep out low-income families and minority residents.

“What Cambridge needs are brick and stone mansions, occupied by millionaires who will share our tax burden.”

Cambridge Rep. Arthur F. Blanchard, 1942

Homes merged into mansions.

In West Cambridge, two and three-family houses were converted to single-family homes.

0homes lost to single-family conversions in one neighborhood

City of Cambridge building permits, West Cambridge, 1996 to 2024. [Citations]

In 2025, we legalized homes for everyone.

The Multifamily Housing Ordinance made it possible to build apartment homes across all of Cambridge.

  • Four storiesallowed on any lot
  • Six storieswith 20% affordable homes
  • Apartments legalcitywide again
  • 10x more growthprojected by 2030
Map of Cambridge. Before zoning, apartments were allowed everywhere. Starting in 1943, bans spread from West Cambridge across most of the city, until by 2024 apartments were allowed mainly in East Cambridge, The Port, Cambridgeport and along the main corridors. In 2025 the Multifamily Housing Ordinance made apartments legal citywide.
  • Apartments allowed
  • Low density only
  • Apartments banned
  • Apartment building on Garden StLegalIllegal to buildLegal again1
    Garden St
  • Apartment building on Linnaean StLegalIllegal to buildLegal again2
    Linnaean St
  • Apartment building on Oxford StLegalIllegal to buildLegal again3
    Oxford St
  • Apartment building on Harvard StLegalIllegal to buildLegal again4
    Harvard St

The 2024 map shows official zoning districts from City of Cambridge GIS, and earlier years are approximate. Quote from the City's zoning history. More maps

Now homes can be built for everyone, not just mansions for the wealthy.

On a lot in North Cambridge, a small detached home was slated to become a large mansion. After the 2025 re-zoning, plans changed, to build four stories for nine families.

Before 2025

1 planned mansion

After

became 9 apartments

Illustration: one lot, before and after 2025

Affordable homes are in the pipeline.

190permanently affordable homes in the pipeline

Every larger new building must set aside 20% of its homes as permanently affordable.

Each porch light is 5 permanently affordable homes

Source: Councillor Zusy's Cambridge Redevelopment Tracker, October 2026. [Citations]

Wealthy landowners want it rolled back.

That means fewer, more expensive homes.

  • Wider setbacks

    Less of every lot can be built on

  • More wasted space

    More suburban-style lots

  • More red tape

    Higher costs to build, higher rents

Thousands of existing Cambridge homes would become illegal to build today.

The red outlines illustrate how 8–12 home buildings would shrink under the proposed rules; not specific projects. Rules: City of Cambridge staff proposal, June 2026. Context.

Homes don't get delayed.
They never get built.

Members of our community are being pushed out.

Massachusetts population loss

Ten columns of faces from 2006 to 2022. Red bars of different heights wipe out faces in each column, with the biggest losses near 2022. The 26 faces lost, about 5,000 residents ages 25 to 44 each, add up to 129,800 more people in that age group leaving Massachusetts for other states than moving in.

Each face is about 5,000 residents ages 25 to 44

129,800 more residents ages 25 to 44 left Massachusetts for other states than moved in, 2006 to 2022. People ages 25 to 44 make up about 60% of the state's net losses (2022).

Source: Boston Indicators, Mass. Migration (April 2024). The 129,800 total is as reported by Patch.

And we all pay the price.

Renters pay in higher rent.
Homeownership becomes impossible.

A typical Cambridge home now costs 3.3 times what it did in 2000.Typical home value, Cambridge, January of each year
Line chart of the typical Cambridge home value from 2000 to 2026. It rises from about $314,000 to over $1 million, with a plateau after 2005 and steeper climbing since 2013.

Source: Zillow Home Value Index, Cambridge, single-family homes and condos, middle price tier, smoothed and seasonally adjusted; January of each year, not adjusted for inflation. Compiled in A Better Cambridge's housing data. Sources

New poll, October 2026

Cambridge wants more homes.

A new survey of 442 Cambridge voters finds broad support for the ordinance.

  • 64%support the Multifamily Housing Ordinance
  • 84%say housing affordability should be a top priority for the City Council
  • 86%of voters aged 18 to 34 support the ordinance
See the poll results

The fight isn't over.

The Council has asked city staff for options to change the ordinance. Nothing has changed yet.

  2. Next stepStaff proposalsdue mid-November
  3. Council decideswhether to draft changes
  4. Public hearingsand public comment
  5. Council votesbefore any changes
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