Two Cambridge Housing Developments Receive Millions in State Funds

Two affordable housing developments in Cambridge were among 29 projects awarded a share of $278 million in state and federal financing and tax credits announced by Gov. Maura T. Healey ’92 last week.

The funding, announced Sept. 3, was awarded through the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities and marks the largest single round of awards from the housing program in more than a decade. The package includes $154.7 million in subsidy financing and $122.9 million in state and federal low-income housing tax credits.

In Cambridge, the Cambridge Housing Authority’s Corcoran Park redevelopment project and the 28-30 Wendell Street project by nonprofit developer Homeowner’s Rehab, Inc. — both 100 percent affordable housing developments — are slated to break ground in 2027. Together, the two projects will create 162 affordable housing units.

Both projects fall under the city’s Affordable Housing Overlay, which allows 100 percent affordable developments to exceed standard size and density requirements. The AHO requires projects to go through a public input process, including at least two meetings with neighbors near the proposed development, and a design consultation and review with the Planning Board.

The redevelopment of the CHA’s Corcoran Park development in Strawberry Hill will eventually replace the 153 existing units across the 8.1-acre site. Phase 1 — the portion receiving state financing — will demolish 29 existing units and replace them with 67 affordable rental units. The full redevelopment is expected to roughly double the number of homes at Corcoran Park to about 300 while addressing long-standing flooding and subsidence issues.

The project entered the AHO process in February 2025 and completed it in March 2026.

The HRI Wendell Street development was first proposed in February 2024 and completed it in December 2025. The project will add a total of 95 homes, including 55 units for families and 40 reserved for older residents in the Baldwin neighborhood.

Cambridge’s Affordable Housing Trust has played a major role in increasing funding for affordable housing developments in the city since it was established in 1989, protecting and funding the development of almost 2,000 units since 2021. The AHT has given significant financial backing to support the acquisition of land and early phase construction for the two projects — giving $4.4 million to the Corcoran Park project and more than $17.3 million to the 28-30 Wendell St. development.

But the funding from the EOHLC was necessary for the two projects to break ground in the next year, according to the city’s announcement of the award.

“We’re incredibly lucky that we’re doing this work both in Cambridge and Massachusetts generally, because Cambridge provides us with an unusual level of resources compared to many cities and towns around the state, or really anywhere in the country,” HRI Executive Director Sara E. Barcan ’89 said in an interview.

“And the Commonwealth has such a deep and kind of varied commitment to affordable housing that you just don’t see, you know, in many parts of the country,” she added.

City leaders praised the award and the state’s collaboration for prioritizing the development of affordable housing amid a nationwide housing crisis.

“When local leadership and state investment come together, we’re able to deliver the kinds of affordable homes our residents deserve and move our region toward a more stable and equitable future,” Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui wrote in the announcement.

—Staff writer Maahi A. Bose can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at maahibose.36. Follow her on X @BoseMaahi.