Harvard Answers Cambridge Housing Charges

The University has replied to charges by a group of Cambridge residents that Harvard's housing practices have contributed to rising rents in the City.

In a letter sent this week to officials of the Cambridge Housing Convention, which two weeks ago passed several resolutions blasting Harvard and M.I.T.'s housing practices, Charles P. Whitlock, assistant to the President for Civic and Governmental Relations, stated that Harvard would continue to work--primarily through the University-backed Cambridge Corporation--to increase low income housing in Cambridge.

The convention was originally sponsored by the Cambridge Economic Opportunity Committee to study the problems of housing for the elderly in the City, but the 800 people present ended up by passing scores of resolutions on all aspects of housing in the City. The group has since renamed itself the Cambridge Housing Convention to de-emphasize its ties with CEOC. The convention will have another session in mid-December. A coordinating committee is continuing its business for the interim.

The coordinating committee had sent a form letter to President Pusey enclosing a copy of the resolutions "directed to your organization," and requesting a meeting with Pusey to discuss the housing situation in the City. Pusey suggested in reply that the group should work with Whitlock.

Pusey said in an interview Wednesday that Harvard was itself hurt by housing shortages in Cambridge and was trying to alleviate them through the Cambridge Corporation. "There is a feeling somehow that the phrase 'citizens of Cambridge' doesn't include the people who live and work at Harvard," he said.

"One of the great deficiencies of the City is that it doesn't provide housing for its academic community. Academic people shouldn't be ignored," Pusey said.

Whitlock wrote that he had forwarded a copy of the resolutions to the Wilson Committee studying the University and the City and that the committee would consider them in detail. Saying that some of the issues raised by the convention "can be responded to immediately," Whitlock denied several charges made by the convention. He wrote that:

* "The University does not use real estate 'straws' in Cambridge and does not intend to do so." [A resolution had requested the University to "disavow the use of straws (front men) and other manipulative devices to acquire land and housing in Cambridge."] Real estate speculators not connected with the University have used Harvard's name in the past when buying land, Whitlock said, suggesting that persons so approached should call him.

* Harvard policy calls for housing undergraduates on campus and a new House is now being constructed to accommodate 400 more students. (The convention had asked Harvard to house its students and faculty so as not to diminish low-income housing in the City.)

* "All properties owned by Harvard University in Cambridge are public knowledge, and registered for the public at the Middlesex Court House Registry of Deeds." (A convention resolution demanded that Harvard and M.I.T. publish a list of all their real estate holdings in the City.)

* Turning over present Harvard housing to the community would only force more students and faculty to live off-campus and would thus increase housing shortages in the City. (A resolution had asked Harvard and M.I.T. to turn over 25 per cent of their housing to the Leased Housing Program--a project to provide low-rent housing to senior citizens.)

A similar copy of the housing convention's resolutions was mailed to M.I.T. Walter L. Milne, assistant to the (M.I.T.) chairman, gave an answer similar in tone to Whitlock's that some of the resolutions were inconsistent, and some were of dubious legality, but that M.I.T. was willing to work with the group on housing problems.

Milne said yesterday that James R. Killian Jr., chairman of the M.I.T. Corporation, has to meet with the housing convention coordinating committee, but that a date for the conference has not yet been set.

The replies from Harvard and M.I.T. were not well received when the 40-odd members of the coordinating committee met Thursday night. Several of those present complained that the universities were "giving us the run around." The community should "meet only with those who can make the decisions---the policymakers, not the underlings," one woman said.

The group finally agreed to seek a meeting with the members of the Wilson Committee at Harvard, to make arrangements for a conference with Killian at M.I.T., and to seek a special meeting of the City Council on October 9 to gain Council backing for their demands.

They also hired Urban Planning Aidan independent Cambridge planning firm which numbers several Harvard faculty and students among its members---to give them technical planning asistance and two community legal service groups to provide legal advice.

Although two or three members wished to enlist the aid of Harvard Students for a Democratic Society, it was agreed that the committee had to make its demands more definite before asking student aid, that involving SDS might be counter-productive, and that the committee should make no formal alliances with any other group.

The Housing Committee of Harvard SDS, which met yesterday afternoon, has decided to make a survey of Cambridge housing to find out how high rents are and how fast they are going up. The results of the survey, tentatively scheduled for completion by the end of the semester, will be turned over to the community housing convention. Though SDS hopes to have some 40 students working on the survey, only about ten showed up yesterday