When Burhan Azeem talks about housing, he isn't speaking in the abstract.

Born in Multan, Pakistan, Azeem came to the United States at age 4 after his family won a visa lottery. Money was tight, and they moved in with family friends on Staten Island. "There were 11 of us living in this three-bedroom. We were too many people to be legal, so we would hide out in closets whenever the landlord came over," he told MIT Technology Review.

Today he is vice mayor of Cambridge, and one of the state's most closely watched voices on housing.

Working-class roots

His parents found steady work at a deli and a Dunkin' Donuts, Cambridge Day reported in 2019, and the family moved often before finding its footing. The Boston Globe reported that his parents had hoped better-paying jobs in America would help them pay off medical debt.

MIT Technology Review wrote that Staten Island was in some ways a tough place to grow up as a Pakistani immigrant kid, especially in the years after 9/11. Cambridge.vote, a local voter guide, notes that Azeem has described how, as a brown Muslim immigrant living in the U.S. after 9/11, Cambridge was the first place he felt welcome.

He won a full scholarship to MIT, where he studied materials science and engineering and graduated in 2019. He served as a campus EMT, then worked as a software engineer, a job he kept alongside his council seat until March 2025.

"It is because of pure luck and generosity that I am here – and I will never forget that," he said when launching his first council campaign, according to Cambridge Day.

The youngest on the council

That first run, in 2019, fell short by about 100 votes. He ran again in 2021 and won. At 24, MIT Technology Review reported, he was the youngest person ever elected to the Cambridge City Council. Voters returned him in 2023 and 2025, and on Jan. 5, 2026, his colleagues chose him as vice mayor, serving alongside Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui.

Housing has been his signature. In his first term, he wrote the measure ending minimum parking requirements for new construction, which MIT Technology Review called a first for a New England city. He also helped change the city's Affordable Housing Overlay to ease approval of taller, fully affordable buildings.

Then came the big one. In February 2025, the council voted 8-1 to allow multifamily housing in every residential neighborhood: up to four stories, or six on larger lots when 20 percent of units are affordable. Azeem brought the proposal forward with Siddiqui.

The Globe reported that he made his case group by group, telling one synagogue that members who don't drive on the Sabbath would benefit from living in dense housing near public transit.

"People support me because I write policies that have a real chance to make a difference in the housing crisis," he told the Globe.

Not everyone agrees. The slow-growth Cambridge Citizens Coalition has frequently criticized Azeem, the Globe reported, arguing his policies will mainly produce expensive condominiums rather than homes everyday people can afford.

What comes next

In February, Azeem launched a campaign for the 2nd Middlesex District state Senate seat held for 20 years by the retiring Sen. Pat Jehlen. The district takes in Somerville, Medford, half of Winchester, and a northern slice of Cambridge.

In the Sept. 1 Democratic primary, he finished third of five candidates with 6,201 votes, about 18 percent, according to results posted by the Secretary of the Commonwealth. State Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven won with 12,546 votes, about 37 percent, and state Rep. Christine Barber took second with 10,340, about 30 percent. Azeem did lead the field among Cambridge voters.

He conceded on primary night and called Uyterhoeven to wish her luck, The Harvard Crimson reported. "I feel like we did everything that we could have," he said. "Sometimes what happens is what happens."

In later posts on X quoted by Banker & Tradesman, he reflected on the pro-housing movement: "The pro-growth left is just more nascent; it doesn't have much of a broad base yet," he wrote in one. "We were kind of building the plane as we were flying it."

He remains vice mayor, and his council term runs through 2027.

In 2024, he told MIT Technology Review what he hopes to leave behind: "five to 10 years from now, when I'm looking back, I just want to see that the things I did are still around and having a positive impact."

For now, that work continues at Cambridge City Hall.

Sources: MIT Technology Review, The Boston Globe, Cambridge Day, Cambridge.vote, The Harvard Crimson, Banker & Tradesman, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, City of Cambridge.