From a candy factory to top-rated affordable housing! Our new building in the Squirrelwood Apartments community recently achieved Passive House Certification, earning the distinction as the #1 highest-performing multi-family building on the East Coast.

Passive House denotes one of the world's leading energy efficiency standards. Buildings that achieve Passive House Certification are built to meet rigorous standards for energy use, indoor air quality, and overall comfort.

We’re proud to create housing in Cambridge that’s not only affordable but also built to the highest quality standards. Residents will enjoy lower utility costs and a healthy, comfortable living space, while our whole community benefits from more environmentally-friendly housing. Squirrelwood’s new residents will be selected in a lottery process this summer and will soon have a safe, sustainable place to call home.

Applications are now open for Cambridge RISE! Cambridge Rise (Recurring Income for Success and Empowerment) is a guaranteed income pilot that will provide $500 monthly payments to 120 single caretaker households in Cambridge for 18 months. Just-A-Start is proud to be leading the initiative with partners including the City of Cambridge, CEOC, Cambridge Housing Authority, and Cambridge Community Foundation.

The application is available in several languages including Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, English, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Biomedical and Information Technology Careers Program students are hard at work in their second semester of coursework. Biomedical students are spending their summer in the laboratory at Bunker Hill Community College, learning hands-on lab science skills that will prepare them to enter quality life science careers after graduation.

Meanwhile, graduates stay connected with the programs through Alumni Services, and congratulations are in order for many alumni this month! Recent graduate successes include new jobs, promotions, raises, and new degrees. We're celebrating a Biomedical program graduate who was recently promoted to Research Associate, earning a 14% pay increase for his skill, and an IT graduate who chose to continue his education by earning his A.S. degree in Information Technology from Bunker Hill Community College this month!

We’re proud of our dedicated and driven students and graduates who lead by example and demonstrate their talent every day!

Our New Street project was featured in a recent article about the impact of Cambridge’s Affordable Housing Overlay.

Creating affordable, high-quality, sustainable housing that’s built to last is what our mission calls for, and the greater apartment count allowed under the Overlay helps make this possible. While New Street’s base zoning would have allowed about 72 apartments, under the Overlay, we’re able to create 107 family-sized affordable apartments. The increased apartment count also reduced the project’s overall costs by about $45,000 per unit, making it more economical while also creating more homes for families. The Overlay is an important tool to help support the creation of affordable housing in our community.