Mayor's Office > Cambridge Social Housing Task Force

Cambridge Social Housing Task Force

The Cambridge Social Housing Task Force is a joint initiative of Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui and City Manager Yi-An Huang to explore social housing as a new tool for housing production and preservation, building on the City’s ongoing efforts to address the housing crisis.

The Task Force will evaluate social housing models, examine key policy and implementation questions, and develop recommendations for how social housing could complement the City’s existing affordable housing strategies. The goal is an actionable framework for advancing a social housing model in Cambridge, grounded in an assessment of operational needs, financial feasibility, governance structures, and alignment with the City's housing goals.

For general inquiries, or to contact the whole Task Force, please email Adam Campbell-Schwartz at acampbellschwartz@cambridgema.gov.

Emails for Task Force co-chairs can be found below under member bios.

Meetings and Materials

Meeting	Agenda & Minutes	Documents & Presentations	Recording
Meeting 1: Wednesday, June 24, 2026, 2 – 4 PM	Agenda Meeting Minutes	Presentation (City of Cambridge Social Housing Task Force) Presentation (NYU Furman Center – “An Introduction to Social Housing Models in the U.S.”) Communication from Kavish Gandhi, Representative from CHJC	Recording
Meeting 2: Wednesday, August 5, 2026, 3 – 5 PM	Agenda Meeting Minutes	Presentation (NYU Furman Center – “Your Reflections on Social Housing Models”; Housing Department Presentation – “Existing Programs and Policies”)	Recording
Meeting 3: Wednesday, August 26, 2026, 3 – 5 PM	Agenda Meeting Minutes	Presentation (City of Cambridge Social Housing Task Force)	Recording
Meeting 4: Wednesday, October 7, 2026, 3 – 5 PM	Agenda Meeting Minutes	Presentation (City of Cambridge Social Housing Task Force)	Recording
Meeting 5: TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD

Open Meeting Portal

Committee Members

Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui

Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui is serving her third term as Mayor of Cambridge, and her fifth term on the Cambridge City Council.

Email: mayor@cambridgema.gov

Councillor Ayah A. Al-Zubi (Co-Chair)

Councillor Ayah A. Al-Zubi is serving her first term on the Cambridge City Council and as Chair of the Public Safety Committee, and Co-Chair of the Finance and Human Services & Veterans Committees.

Email: aal-zubi@cambridgema.gov

Jennifer Caira (Co-Chair)

Jennifer Caira serves the City of Cambridge as Deputy Chief of Planning.

Email: jcaira@cambridgema.gov

Councillor Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler (Co-Chair)

Councillor Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler is serving his third term on the Cambridge City Council and as Chair of the Government Operations, Rules & Claims Committee, and Co-Chair of the Ordinance and Housing Committees.

Email: jsobrinhowheeler@cambridgema.gov

Chris Cotter

Chris Cotter serves the City of Cambridge as Chief of Housing.

Sara Barcan

Sara Barcan is the Executive Director of Homeowner’s Rehab, Inc. (HRI), a Cambridge-based community development corporation with nearly 1700 rental homes in portfolio, in both all-affordable and mixed-income developments. With more than 35 years of experience in the affordable housing field, Sara leads a team of 16 at HRI. Since her arrival at HRI in late 2022, Sara and her staff have launched the development or preservation of more than 300 affordable rental homes, as well as the expansion of HRI’s community engagement programming to include financial capability and resident leadership development. Prior to HRI, Sara spent more than 20 years at the quasi-public Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC), providing financial and technical assistance to CDCs and other non-profit developers of affordable housing in Massachusetts, and most recently served as Director of Housing Development. Sara has also worked for several non-profit housing developers, leading projects in Boston and Chelsea. Sara holds a Master in City Planning from MIT, and an A.B. in American History and Literature from Harvard University.

Kathleen Evans

Kathleen Evans is the Senior Director of Capital Deployment at MassHousing, where she has worked on program and product development and multifamily origination since 2016. Prior to joining MassHousing, Kathleen worked at Recap Advisors and the Cambridge Housing Authority. Kathleen holds a B.A. from the University of Virginia and a Master’s in City Planning from MIT.

Tom Evans

Tom Evans has spent thirteen years as the Executive Director of the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority, where he has guided the strategic repositioning of the organization and expanded its scope citywide. After over a decade of teaching in schools and instructing outdoor programs, Tom pursued a master’s degree in urban planning at UC Berkeley. He then spent eight years at the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency managing large-scale residential projects on former railyards, military bases, and freeways.

In Cambridge, Tom guided the planning and entitlement work for over two million square feet of mixed-use development in Kendall Square, which includes significant investments in high-density housing, parks, streetscapes and public infrastructure. Citywide, he has orchestrated the expansion of redevelopment work into neighborhood facilities including the adaptive reuse of the Foundry building, the preservation of the nonprofit center at Bishop Allen Drive, and the launch of the Forward Fund grant program for nonprofit capital improvements. He is now facilitating the ongoing growth of the CRA into new areas, including affordable homeownership developments, neighborhood retail economic opportunities, and the preservation of historic community centers.

C Dale Gadsden

C Dale Gadsden is a dedicated educator, leader, and community builder whose career bridges academia, technology, and public service. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College with advanced degrees from Harvard University, she has taught African American and American Studies at institutions including Northeastern, Simmons, and Lasell University, where she currently serves as a lecturer. Alongside her academic work, Dale holds a part-time position at Apple Inc. as an Expert, where she trains and mentors sales teams and has been recognized for delivering exceptional customer experiences. A lifelong advocate for education and equity, she founded and continues to serve on the board of the Mount Holyoke Black Alumnae Society. Throughout her career, Dale has contributed to numerous committees and boards that strengthen community engagement and cohesion, reflecting her enduring commitment to empowering others through knowledge, connection, and service. Ms. Gadsden also serves on the Cambridge Housing Authority Board of Commissioners.

Kavish Gandhi

Originally from the Boston area, Kavish is a Master's in City Planning (MCP) student at MIT in the Housing, Community and Economic Development track. During and since college, he became passionate about working to make Boston an affordable place for all who live and hope to live here. He worked for the Neighborhood Developers (TND), an affordable housing developer in Chelsea, as an AmeriCorps VISTA from 2019-2020 and as manager of their eviction prevention program from 2022-2025, winning the 2025 MACDC Rising Star Award, and in between was a Senior Research Assistant at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston doing research in national housing and healthcare policy. Outside of work, Kavish is passionate about volunteerism and is the co-chair of the board of Cambridge Volunteers.

Trudi Goodman

Trudi Goodman is a Cambridge resident of over 45 years with extensive experience in housing advocacy dating back to 1975. In Boston, she worked directly with Mayor Kevin White on land development, CDBG block grants, and housing planning as part of the Back of the Hill Community Development Association, which resulted in 100 South Huntington Avenue—a 100% occupied development that was, at the time, the only building in Massachusetts to include handicap accommodations in family units, allowing disabled couples to live with their children rather than be separated. From 1990–1995, she served as a volunteer housing advocate with Cambridge's Eviction Free Zone, supporting at-risk tenants, low-income residents, elderly individuals, and immigrants through rent control disputes and court proceedings. For over 33 years, she has also provided informal housing advocacy for residents of the Inman Cast II Apartments, assisting neighbors with management, Section 8, and other ongoing issues. Trudi is a Certified Mental Health Counselor, and a member of the Mass Senior Action Council's Housing Committee, the Cambridge Housing Justice Coalition, and the Inman Square Neighborhood Association.

Jean Hannon

Jean Hannon is a lifelong resident of Cambridge, where she was born and raised, and where she continues to live today thanks to affordable housing. In the years following the end of rent control, she witnessed firsthand how Cambridge became increasingly unaffordable for many longtime residents who hoped to remain in their community.

She has been a tenant of the Cambridge Housing Authority (CHA) for over twenty years and is a dedicated tenant advocate through her local tenant council and the Alliance of Cambridge Tenants, an organization representing CHA public housing and Section 8 residents. Through her advocacy, she has played an active role in shaping the renovation, preservation, and development of affordable housing across Cambridge, working closely with nonprofit partners and the CHA.

Christopher Herbert

Dr. Christopher Herbert is Managing Director of the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies and a Lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. In his decades of experience studying the U.S. housing market, Dr. Herbert has focused on the financial, social, and demographic aspects of homeownership, the dynamics of the rental market, housing affordability, and racial and socioeconomic segregation. Dr. Herbert has co-edited several books, including The State of Housing Design (Harvard University Press, 2023), A Shared Future: Fostering Communities of Inclusion in an Era of Inequality(2018), and Homeownership Built to Last: Balancing Access, Affordability, and Risk After the Housing Crisis (Brookings Institution Press, 2014). Dr. Herbert currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Housing Trust and the Advisory Board of Ivory Innovations. Previously he served on the Board of Directors of Freddie Mac from 2018-2025. He holds a PhD and Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University, and a BA in History from Dartmouth College.

William MacArthur

Will MacArthur is the Data and Research Manager at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, where he supports data-driven policy development and research. Previously, he performed mixed-methods evaluations of housing programs as a Program Analyst at Enterprise Community Partners and conducted urban planning and community informed research for Massachusetts-based municipal clients as a Research Consultant at Rivera Consulting. Will is also a committed volunteer for housing justice and economic opportunity in Cambridge, having served as Staff Director, Finance Director, and Maintenance Director at the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter and as a volunteer tax preparer in Just a Start's VITA program. A lifelong Cambridge resident, he attended Cambridge Public Schools from kindergarten through his graduation from Cambridge Rindge and Latin. He holds a Master's degree with Distinction in Public and Urban Policy from the University of Glasgow and a Bachelor's degree magna cum laude in Social Studies from Harvard University.

Margaret Donnelly Moran

Margaret Donnelly Moran, a national expert in repositioning, recapitalizing and building new affordable and public housing units, is the Cambridge Housing Authority’s (CHA’s) Deputy Executive Director for Development. In this capacity, Margaret directs CHA’s Planning and Development Department, which serves as the agency’s real estate developer. Since 2010, she has secured nearly $1.6 billion in financing for CHA and its’ partner agencies to substantially rehabilitate or create almost 2,800 homes for low-income families and individuals. The funded improvements have transformed CHA’s public housing into a national model of high quality, energy efficient, sustainable affordable housing and have reduced CHA’s carbon footprint by 35%. Margaret also spearheads CHA’s development consulting practice which has raised over $250 million in funding for other housing authorities.

Carl Nagy-Koechlin

Carl Nagy-Koechlin has been Just A Start’s Executive Director since 2019. In this role, he has led the organization’s wide range of housing development, housing services, workforce training, and financial empowerment programs. This has included the development of approximately 220 affordable homes, with another 300 slated to be developed in the coming 4-5 years.

Carl came to his role at Just A Start, with over 30 years of community development experience and leadership. He previously served as Executive Director at Fenway CDC and Housing Solutions for Southeastern Massachusetts. Under his leadership, those organizations created 440 affordable apartments and homes in 16 affordable housing development projects; implemented and strengthened housing stabilization and homelessness prevention programs; and developed job training and placement programs that placed hundreds of people into living wage jobs with strong career ladders. At Fenway CDC he led a successful campaign to save Fenway Park and save the Fenway neighborhood from a proposed new stadium.

Carl holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a Master of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Krissandra Robinson

Krissy Robinson, a multigenerational Cantabridgian, is an academic leader and equity strategist with over a decade of experience advancing access and inclusion in higher education. Currently serving as Assistant Dean at MIT's Office of Academic Community, Empowerment, and Success, Krissy leads multiple programs serving 200+ students annually, with a focus on expanding pathways for underrepresented scholars in STEM fields.

Her commitment to housing equity and community development is grounded in both professional practice and personal values. Krissy holds a Master of Social Work with a concentration in Trauma from Simmons University and a Bachelor of Science in Community Development and Africana Studies from the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her research focuses on advancing equity and inclusion across systems, bringing strategic planning expertise, community engagement skills, and a deep understanding of the intersection between housing justice and broader systems change.

Currently serving on the City of Cambridge Affordable Housing Trust, Krissy is committed to developing practical, community-centered solutions that center the voices and agency of those most impacted by housing inequity. She is excited to contribute to Cambridge's exploration of social housing as a tool for building more equitable, thriving communities.

Susan Schlesinger

Susan B. Schlesinger brings over four decades of experience in affordable housing, community development, and public administration. She holds degrees in Urban and Environmental Planning from Tufts University, Education from Northeastern University, and a B.A. in American History from Tufts. She began her career as a Community Planner at the Community Action Agency of Somerville before joining Cambridge's Community Development Department, where she helped establish the Affordable Housing Trust and develop the City's inclusionary zoning ordinance, eventually rising to Assistant City Manager for Community Development. She later served as President and Chief Investment Officer of The Life Initiative, a $100 million statewide community development fund, and as Chief Administrative Officer of Massachusetts Capital Resource Company. A past president of the Citizens Housing And Planning Association, she has served on the Cambridge Affordable Housing Trust Fund board for nearly 25 years and on the Cambridge Community Preservation Act Board for 15 years.