TENTS TAKE OVER MASS & CASS
Advocates fret as Methadone Mile ‘tent city’ grows
A “tent city” has sprung up in Boston’s Methadone Mile over the past month — possibly with some help from nonprofits — and politicians and advocates worry it’s contributing to the deteriorating conditions in the area, where the city is said to be mulling action in the coming weeks.
“It exploded overnight,” said Suffolk Sheriff Steve Tompkins, whose offices and jail are right in the area. “Boom, there’s a damn tent city out there.”
The Newmarket Business Association’s Sue Sullivan said she and others regularly count the number of tents, and the number “ballooned” from 13 about a month ago to 38 a week later to around 106 on a recent night.
“Right now it is a publicsafety hazard,” she said of the tents, which multiple people said simply take the bad behavior on the Mile and put it out of sight. “That’s why, I think, the violence is up tremendously.”
It’s not quite clear what caused this explosion of tents. Various Methadone Mile observers say they hear many are stolen from nearby stores, and they regularly hear that nonprofits aimed at helping the homeless are bringing them in. Indeed, one nonprofit called Bridge Kids Give Back has posted a few times asking people to buy tents for the homeless, and has a couple of tents on its Amazon registry, encouraging people to purchase them for those on the street.
The nonprofit didn’t respond to requests for comment this week.
“We shouldn’t be encouraging people to live on the street — we should be encouraging people to come inside,” City Councilor Frank Baker, who represents the area, said. “The amount of sexual abuse and physical abuse and mental abuse that goes on in those tents we can’t even imagine.”
Acting Mayor Kim Janey’s administration said it has been in conversation with the nearby Target to do something about the tents, either putting them out of reach of shoplifters or adding anti-theft devices. The city said the store told them it would consider it.
“Enough is enough — the tents have to go,” said City Councilor Michael Flaherty. “Handing out tents and allowing predatory drug dealing and open air drug use is not a solution.”
The area is sometimes known as Methadone Mile or, due to its closest big intersection of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachu
setts Avenue, “Mass and Cass.” But the worst and most deeply entrenched parts of the violent open-air drug market have moved away from that highly visible crossing and into the back roads near the jail: Topeka Street and particularly Atkinson Street, which even in daylight is swarming with people actively doing drugs on the side of the road, crowds of people under the influence milling about, and sometimes brutal violence, as evidenced by the fatal stabbing on Atkinson this past Monday.
Multiple people told the Herald they understand the city’s planning something this week, some sort of effort to improve conditions on the Mile — but it’s not entirely clear what. The Janey administration, though it did provide several comments about Mass and Cass, wouldn’t bite on a question about what’s coming next.
Tompkins said prosecutors and the governor’s office had called him up over the past few days.
“We need the state to put some muscle and some money into this,” the sheriff said.
On tents, Janey’s administration pointed out that the city’s “encampment protocol” is to give people in tents 48 hours’ notice before removing the tents. A city spokeswoman said the authorities offer treatment and other services throughout the process.
“We are taking action to improve both public health and public safety in the neighborhood,” a Janey spokeswoman said in a statement. The city noted that it had referred 55 people to treatment in the past week, and, through targeting “predators,” had made more than 30 drug-related arrests.
“There is more work to be done for those who are suffering from substance use and mental health issues. We will continue to take a coordinated approach to improve the quality of life in the neighborhood.”
City Councilor Ed Flynn, who, like Sullivan, Baker and Tompkins, sits on the beleaguered task force for the area, said the city needs to continue to decentralize services, and added, “I’m calling for a new city/state position: a Deputy Mayor that focuses only on the Mass and Cass crisis, with a mandate to decentralize services and programs and he/she answers directly to the Mayor and Governor only.”