Advocates of Rent Control Act Up

The latent tensions between Harvard's expansionist tendencies and those seeking to protect affordable housing in Cambridge have flared again this year.

With the onset of rent control in 1971, affordable housing and residential displacement became less of a concern in Cambridge.

But since the abolition of rent control by statewide referendum in 1994, the fate of 700 formerly rent-controlled Cambridge apartments owned by Harvard has become a major issue.

And student activism has soared.

The University plans to convert about half its apartment units into affiliate housing and to set aside some of the remainder as permanently affordable housing.

In response, Joshua D. Kirshner '96-'97 founded the Harvard Community for Affordable Housing (HCAH) last fall.

The group's primary concern is to protect affordable housing for residents by pressuring Harvard to rethink its apartment proposal, according to Kirshner.

"We [the students] are who they invoke to justify what they're doing," Krishner says. "But as students we wanted to...fight against that."

"My overall concern," he adds, "is that Cambridge doesn't become a haven for wealthy people."

Through the Progressive Action Network (PAN), Kirshner contacted a handful of students interested in the affordable housing issue including Shoshana L. Weiner '97, the Fair Housing Committee coordinator for Phillips Brooks House, and Melissa B. Weintraub '97.

Because PAN reorganized to form UNITE!, an umbrella organization of activist groups, HCAH became increasingly independent of the group.

HCAH has taken part in two candle-light vigils in front of Holyoke Center, organized a petition and letter-writing campaign to the Harvard administration, and co-sponsored a February tech-in with Education 4 Action.

The conference, titled "The Harvard Empire and Cambridge: Economic Violence in Our Own Backyard," drew support from various Cambridge city councillors and community leaders.

Tenant advocates praise the students for their support and credit them with influencing University policy.

"HCAH has made an enormous difference," says JoAnne Preston, founder of the Agassiz Tenants Organization.

Eric D. Albert '98 says the creation of PAN, UNITE! and HCAH are evidence of a growing concern among students for the larger community.

The Undergraduate Council also became involved, passing a resolution in its last meeting which called for the preservation of affordable housing in Harvard-owned properties.

Matthew Mayers '97, a sponsor of the bill, says Harvard should be a responsible member of the community and consider the needs of lower- and middle-class residents having trouble with housing.

Director of Harvard Planning and Real Estate Kathy A. Spiegelman says she thinks that the concerns expressed by HCAH and the Undergraduate Council are important.

But they are only factor she must consider, she says.

"I don't think if you're a student advocate you have to compromise," Spiegelman says. "When you're in a position to make policy, you often have to look for a compromise solution."

Kirshner says he became interested in affordable housing because of his experiences at the University of Bolivia, where he studied in 1994-95.

Impressed by the activism in the Bolivian land-rights movement, Kirshner says he hoped to spawn a similar awakening in Cambridge.

Kirshner says he was impressed upon his return to Harvard last fall with the increase in student activism. "I feel like there has been a lot of social service all the way through," he says. "But in terms of social action, that sort of thing seems to be going on more."