Boston-Area Church Rectory Is Set To Become Multifamily Housing

The former Sacred Heart Church rectory and school in East Cambridge, MA, are being renovated to make way for affordable housing.

The developer, Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH), is designing the 46 apartment homes as a less expensive option for qualifying households with a range of incomes below 80% of the area median income (AMI).

For example, to move into a 50% AMI one-bedroom apartment, a one-person household could earn up to $57,900; a two-person household with that same AMI bracket could earn up to $66,200.

Sacred Heart Church opened in 1876 and was once a cornerstone of the neighborhood with its Gothic Revival design and bustling parish school. The rectory, convent, and school served the community for decades, but after the school closed in the 1960s, much of the property sat vacant.

Even though the complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, it remained underused while redevelopment pressure in the area grew. Now, after years of sitting idle, the former church buildings are being restored and repurposed.

The project will transform the site into multifamily housing—balancing preservation of historic character with the city’s need for more accessible homes. The complex will include one-, two-, and three-bedroom units.

“The Rose on Sixth Street, an adaptive reuse project, will create affordable homes for the community while preserving and restoring the architectural character of the two historic structures and will include 34 one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments and 12 with three or more bedrooms,” as stated in a press release.

“POAH looks forward to transforming this historic property into well-designed, high-quality, and attractive apartments that will offer critical housing opportunities to residents who would otherwise not be able to afford to live in the city of Cambridge,” said POAH President/CEO Aaron Gornstein.

“We are grateful for the support and collaboration of our partners, all of whom are making this exciting project possible,” he added.

Affordability has been a factor for people looking to buy or even rent in the Boston metro. In July, Boston home prices fell slightly from the month before, but the median listing price is still close to $1 million—$949,500 to be exact, according to Realtor.com® data.

The number of listings on the market shrank 11.3% from last month, which is a bigger decrease than normal for this time of the year in Boston, and homes are also selling more slowly than at the same time last year.

City officials rally behind the housing project

A big part of the funding for the project is coming from the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC), which has offered $2.4 million through a combination of grants and loans, as well as a 9% Low Income Housing Tax Credits and state Low Income Housing Tax Credits.

“EOHLC is proud to contribute over $2.4 million to this important project led by POAH to create 46 affordable homes for families in East Cambridge,” said Ed Augustus, Massachusetts secretary of Housing and Livable Communities. “By repurposing a historic school and parish rectory, we’re preserving the building’s rich architecture while providing much-needed affordable housing for the community.”

Several city officials and leaders have spoken in favor of the affordable housing project, including Cambridge City Manager Yi-An Huang, who expressed gratitude for the project’s overall mission. “We are thrilled to see 46 new affordable units move forward and greatly appreciate POAH’s work to advance a plan for these new homes by converting existing buildings to housing through the City’s Affordable Housing Overlay provisions,” she said.

“We greatly appreciate the continued funding commitments made by the city’s Affordable Housing Trust, EOHLC, and other supporters that will make it possible to create these new affordable homes.”

The project is expected to be completed by fall 2027, with the first residents moving in by December 2027.