"Considering we paid $30,000 per unit...I feel we did pretty well," Sullivan says.

President of Cambridge's Small Property Owner's Association (SPOA) Lenore M. Schloming '59 says that Harvard did not need to sell its housing for such reduced rates and is impressed by the University's generosity in this case.

"As a little owner...I would say why does Harvard want to give up so much?" Schloming asks.

Many, like Peter Daly, executive director of the non-profit organization which now owns the 100 units of housing sold by Harvard.

Over the past two years, the issue of low income housing has shot to the top of the city's agenda.

With diminishing federal funds flowing toward low income housing; escalating prices of market rents in the city; and the final death of rent control protections, Cambridge is now facing a shortage of roughly 2,000 units of low-income housing.

This same set of factors led Harvard to begin rethinking its strategy of residential real estate management after a state-wide referendum eliminated rent control two years ago.

While the University was seeking to downsize real estate holdings to facilitate the management process, its primary goal was to ensure that even after rent control's demise, Harvard affiliates would have access to Harvard housing at affordable prices.

Keller says that these goals ultimately led the University to reach an agreement with the city.

"Our reason for doing this was to have affiliate access in the main units...besides the fact that we think its the right thing to do," Keller says.

The Issues

The agreement reached by Harvard and the city addresses three primary issues.

First, current Harvard tenants who qualify as "protected"--a designation given to needy families, the elderly and the disabled--will be able to remain in their apartments for as long as their households remain qualified under city standards.

Units occupied by these tenants will only reach the market rate after protected tenants voluntarily leave their apartments.

Second, Harvard agreed to sell 100 apartments at below market value (approximately $30,000 per unit).