‘one tent is too many’
City plans to break up Mass & Cass enclave, offer help to denizens
The city of Boston will begin to look to get people out of tents on Mass and Cass and into beds, Acting Mayor Kim Janey’s administration is announcing as conditions in the troubled area worsen.
“Tents, are not appropriate housing,” Janey told reporters Tuesday afternoon as she announced various new moves aimed at cutting down on homelessness, including naming it a public health emergency. “They lack clean water and adequate hygiene facilities. Even more concerning, these tents have become a site of infectious diseases, sexual assaults, human trafficking, potential overdoses and violence.”
“We cannot let our most vulnerable residents continue to suffer in these encampments,” Janey continued. “One tent is too many.”
Janey’s executive order says, “all City agencies will now prioritize enforcement of existing laws and the exercise of existing powers to prevent the placement and maintenance of these encampments in the city.”
Administration officials stressed that this city’s not looking to lock the “unsheltered” tent-dwellers up, and instead city workers will be required to give the homeless advance notice and offer a treatment or shelter bed.
But per the executive order, “If an individual refuses to remove an encampment after those steps are completed, the owner’s refusal to remove it may be considered disorderly conduct.” Janey said this would be a “last resort,” aimed at getting the person into a diversionary program like drug court.
Health Chief Marty Martinez said there are at least 150 tents up in the Mass and Cass area. That South End area, also called Methadone Mile, is home to a violent and dirty open-air drug market where hundreds of people mill around all day and night, and where people can frequently be seen openly shooting up.
The Boston Public Health Commission also moved to declare that unsheltered homelessness and substance abuse are a public health crisis, which gives the BPHC more authority to act.
The administration will create a “central command structure” led by the city and state Departments of Health & Humans Services to coordinate the response, tracking shelter and treatment options.
Janey’s executive order said the city will “work to bring additional beds online” in the city and around the region, though details of where remained vague. Martinez said there are around 170 beds currently open across the city.
The executive order also said the Boston Transportation Department “will implement road safety measures to improve road and sidewalk safety and access in the Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard area.” They’ll also “continue to focus on the cleanliness of the area” and do regular cleanings in the filthy spots where workers have reported getting sick and the city warns of rat-borne diseases.
The text says the Boston Police Department “will continue to enforce all laws related to drug trafficking, human trafficking, disorderly conduct, and trespassing to address the victimization of individuals suffering from substance use disorder.”
Administration officials in a press briefing stressed that they’re not trying to “criminalize” addictions or mental-health issues, and will attempt to divert people with lower-level crimes to treatment. But they also said people committing violence, human trafficking or other serious offenses will have to face the “consequences.”
This weekend, the Herald reported that there was a memo circulating to BPD officers that the department would be focusing on arresting people with multiple warrants in the Methadone Mile area.
Janey didn’t directly answer a question about why this is happening now, rather than two months or four months ago when conditions began to go further downhill on the Mile, other than to say this is “urgent” work.
Steve Fox of the South End Forum neighborhood group said these plans seem like a great start in broad strokes, though he’s still looking for answers from the administration over “How are we going to stop the migration into the neighborhoods?”