Cambridge Affordable Housing Trust Makes $3 Million Increase to City Homeownership Resale Fund

The Cambridge Affordable Housing Trust voted unanimously to provide $800,000 in funding to help the construction of 95 affordable rental units on land formerly held by Lesley University, and added $3 million to a fund for repurchasing and rehabilitating affordable housing in a meeting on Thursday.

Homeowner’s Rehab, Inc., a nonprofit that builds affordable housing, requested the $800,000 of additional funding to support pre-development activities — such as architectural and environmental planning — at the incoming 28-30 Wendell Street development.

That proposed development has drawn backlash from neighbors who criticized it for being too tall and dense for the area. The city has already given more than $16 million to Homeowner’s Rehab in order to acquire the property, and another $650,000 in pre-development funds.

Though board members voted unanimously in favor of both funding proposals, some posed questions about the $3 million increase for the affordable housing trust. The Trust repurchases affordable housing units and rehabilitates them before reselling the units at an affordable price, helping maintain the city’s stock of income-restricted units.

The extra $3 million represents a major addition to the Resale Fund, which has only been allocated $10 million total over the last nearly 20 years.

According to a city memo distributed at the meeting, repurchased units often suffer from “significant deferred maintenance,” requiring the fund to devote more time and money toward renovations before they can sell it to the next owners. That means the fund is both spending more cash and taking longer to recoup it, driving managers’ request for an increase in cash from the city. High interest rates and a recent change to the resale formula have also played a role.

Board member James G. Stockard raised concerns about whether the city was in effect paying to repair normal wear and tear that the previous homeowners should have addressed.

“Part of being a homeowner is doing that kind of maintenance and it would be good for our homeowners to begin to learn about that discipline,” Stockard, a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, said.

Anna Dolmatch, the resale fund’s senior manager, said that although many repurchased homes came back to the city in poor condition, they did not expect the homeowners to keep the homes in top form.

“Our definition of normal wear and tear for a family of six that lived there for 30 years is very, very generous,” Dolmatch said. However, she acknowledged the risk that comes with the knowledge that a unit would not have to be sold on the market could allow for more “egregious situations.”

“We just don’t want to be in the position of taking away what people have earned that’s already fairly modest,” she said.