Beyond Urban Renewal: The Potential for Retooling Redevelopment Authorities to Create Social Housing in Massachusetts

Across the US, under the umbrella of “social housing,” there is growing call for renewed public sector leadership in developing housing that is managed for long-term affordability and serves a broad range of household incomes. Cities, counties, and states have set up new programs toward this end, some run by existing entities, such as Montgomery County, Maryland’s public housing authority, and some managed by newly created organizations, including in Atlanta, Chicago, and Seattle. One motivation for this new approach to housing is that high housing prices are stymieing the economy. Low-, moderate-, and, increasingly, middle-income households are unable to access quality, affordable homes. Massachusetts, too, is seeing a movement toward social housing: authorization for a state pilot program was included in a 2024 housing bill, and the City of Cambridge issued a policy order to investigate the adoption of this approach in 2025. 

Redevelopment authorities (RAs), also known as urban renewal agencies, have, to date, not been considered as potential actors in the realm of social housing. RAs were created in the 1940s to stabilize property values and the municipal tax base through private redevelopment, a purpose distinct from public housing authorities’ mandate to develop and operate low-income housing. The federal urban renewal program was terminated in 1974, but Massachusetts supported RAs financially into the 1990s. The state’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities continues to oversee municipalities’ urban renewal plans. 

Interest in exploring the potential for RAs to contribute to social housing gave rise to the present study. Driven in particular by concern over the lack of housing affordable to middle-income households in high-cost cities like Cambridge, the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority (CRA), the Cambridge Community Foundation, and the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at the Harvard Kennedy School came together to support this research. 

The research was conducted in late 2025 and early 2026 and consisted of a review of regulations as well as of studies and news articles examining RAs’ history and evolution; a scan of active urban renewal plans; site visits; and over forty interviews with RA staff and board members, representatives of state agencies and interest groups, private legal and planning consultants, real estate developers working with RAs, and experts studying redevelopment.