That the City Manager is requested to direct the Community Development Department to compile a list of single family homes which could be purchased by the Affordable Housing Trust and converted to Single Room Occupancies or Housing Cooperatives

City of Cambridge O-6 ORIGINAL ORDER IN CITY COUNCIL March 26, 2018 COUNCILLOR TOOMEY MAYOR MCGOVERN COUNCILLOR SIDDIQUI WHEREAS: The City of Cambridge is facing an affordable housing crisis and the City needs to foster bold, innovative, and most importantly aggressive strategies to provide affordable housing; and WHEREAS: In January 2015, the City Council unanimously approved an order of setting a goal of the creation of 1,000 new affordable units by 2020 and the City Manager’s report back on the feasibility of this goal acknowledged the need for “new tools” to help the City achieve this goal; and WHEREAS: Housing Cooperatives (Co-ops) have been utilized in other cities to provide affordable housing; and WHEREAS: Single-Room Occupancies (SROs) are an essential component of the City’s affordable housing stock and these forms of housing are increasingly scarce; and WHEREAS: Currently the waiting list for an SRO through the Cambridge Housing Authority is 1,920 people which is a 55% increase from the 1,235 people in 2017; and WHEREAS: SROs/Co-ops could provide transitional housing options Cambridge residents, veterans, the homeless, immigrants, seniors who have been displaced and starter apartments for young adults; and WHEREAS: Zoning regulations have made the purchase of these single-family homes to be converted to SROs/Co-ops not feasible in certain neighborhoods which do not provide any affordable housing; and WHEREAS: Affordable housing opportunities leads to a more socio-economic diverse community; and WHEREAS: A stated mission of the Affordable Housing Trust is the protection and the expansion of affordable housing opportunities; now therefore be it ORDERED: That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to direct the Department of Community Development to compile a list of single-family homes available on the market in Residential A1, A2, and B zones; and be it further ORDERED: That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to direct the City Solicitor to draft zoning language with the intent to provide a provision for the conversion of these

single-family homes into single-room occupancy units and/or co-ops; and be it further ORDERED: That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to direct the Affordable Housing Trust to aggressively bid on these properties; and be it further ORDERED: That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to confer with the Executive Director of the Cambridge Housing Authority and the Department of Housing and Community Development on what grants could be utilized to purchase these buildings; and be it further ORDERED: That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to further confer with the Executive Director of Cambridge Housing Authority on the feasibility of providing project based housing vouchers for these units and compiling a list of non-profits that the Cambridge Housing Authority could rent to; and be it further ORDERED: That this matter be referred to the Housing Committee.