Manuscripts/9. Housing Justice

Founded in 1988, the Cambridge Eviction Free Zone (EFZ) was a tenant-run community organization that worked for social and economic justice in the areas of housing and tenants' rights, rent control, and immigrant voting rights. It also addressed issues of affordability and conditions in rental housing. Until its disbandment in December 2007, EFZ assisted tenants in exercising their legal rights, providing information and support to tenants facing evictions and rent increases.

The Committee for Cambridge Rent Control (CCRC) was founded by Cambridge Eviction Free Zone to develop an initiative petition to re-establish rent control in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2003, CCRC gathered enough signatures to place its initiative petition on the ballot for the November elections, but the measure failed to win enough votes to pass. CCRC disbanded in late 2003.