Mass and Cass is not just Boston’s problem

The opioid crisis is not limited to the Methadone Mile.

Substance abuse and the homelessness that often accompanies it are not confined to Boston’s city limits.

It’s a city problem, a regional problem, a statewide scourge.

Fighting it calls for an all-handson-deck approach, and while some ideas are being hashed out among the mayoral candidates, one proposal has moved to the front burner: Acting Mayor Kim Janey’s plan to convert a hotel in Revere to a transitional homeless center.

Revere Mayor Brian Arrigo was not happy.

“I am disappointed in the Boston Public Health Commission’s operations, communications, and accountability measures — or lack thereof — as they concern its ‘regional’ plan to address the disaster on Melnea Cass Boulevard by converting the Quality Inn Hotel at 100 Morris Street, Revere, to a homeless transitional center. I am deeply concerned about the chaotic nature of disinformation and have lost all confidence in the Boston Public Health Commission to thoughtfully execute on an issue of such regional public importance,” he reportedly wrote to the executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission.

Perhaps the execution was less than thoughtful, this is not the sort of thing one springs on a neighboring mayor.

However, the move itself is a good one, surprise or no.

One of the “benefits” of the Methadone Mile is that it works to contain a very large problem within the city of Boston.

Last year, CBS Boston reported on COVID-19’s effect on the opioid crisis here.

“They’re pouring in from everywhere,” said Sue Sullivan, the executive director of the Newmarket Business Association.

City Councilor Annissa Essaibi George said the Hub is bearing the brunt of a statewide problem.

“More than 60% of the people seeking support services one way or another are not from the city of Boston originally,” she said.

So why should Boston shoulder most of the burden?

Beds for the homeless, a plan for treatment and beyond, these are vital steps to stem the tide of the substance abuse crisis.

Cities and towns close to Boston, and further out, should be willing to step up to the plate by repurposing buildings as homeless shelters and filling some of their unoccupied hotels with former residents of Mass and Cass.

The hotel plan could be filed under How Not to Deal With a Neighboring Mayor, but the thought behind the proposal is sound.

The addicts and homeless people on Mass and Cass are not human flotsam ravaged by a disease and misery, they’re folks from all over the Bay State.