Pols apart at Mass and Cass
Mayoral candidates line up against sheriff’s plan
The escalating crisis at Mass and Cass has become a central issue in the mayor’s race, which will be decided in the Nov. 2 citywide election.
Boston’s acting mayor and mayoral hopefuls are distancing themselves from a plan that would force homeless drug addicts living in squalor along Mass and Cass into a former ICE detention facility where they could receive treatment, despite backing by top law enforcement officials.
“As we think about how to best serve those dealing with substance use disorder in our city, you certainly need to look at various options. There is a long history in our country of criminalizing substance use disorder and we want to be careful not to do that in this case,” Acting Mayor Kim Janey said, speaking at an unrelated press conference at City Hall on Tuesday.
Janey said that while she is “intrigued” by a plan by Sheriff Steven Tompkins that would repurpose a 100bed former ICE detention center on his South Bay campus to help rehabilitate the city’s homeless and drug addicted, she stressed the need for a “public-health approach.”
Tompkins floated the plan a week ago when Janey’s own plan — to use hotels in Revere to get about three dozen out of more than 300 people currently living in the street around the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, often referred to as “Mass and Cass,” off the streets.
The area — which also hosts several homeless and drug treatment centers — has become overrun with tents and temporary shelters as people experiencing homelessness and drug addiction have turned it into a squatters’ encampment.
Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins on Monday said she would not rule out Tompkins’ plan to provide temporary housing as the situation in the area that is sometimes disparagingly referred to as “Methadone Mile” has become “untenable” during an appearance on GBH’s “Boston Public Radio.”
That same day, Attorney General Maura Healey told The Boston Globe, “What Sheriff Tompkins is putting out there, he is offering an option to help this population and all options need to be on the table.”
The escalating crisis at Mass and Cass has become a central issue in the mayor’s race, which will be decided in the Nov. 2 citywide election.
Both candidates, city councilors-at large Michelle Wu and Annissa EssaibiGeorge, both bucked the the sheriff ’s plan.
Essaibi-George said though the crisis requires “urgent action … it should not be overseen by a Sheriff.
“This is a public health crisis and should be overseen by health care professionals. We should be investing our time, resources, and funds into a regional response with a public health surge and wraparound treatment services to help those suffering at Mass and Cass find recovery and rebuild the continuum of care that is currently broken,” Essaibi-George said.
Wu said that while she’s “grateful” to everyone formulating solutions, “I don’t believe this is the solution.
“I fully agree that we must take immediate action to address the root causes of this crisis not through criminalization, but through public health and housing,” she said.