Wu seeks Mass and Cass help, again
Mayor Michelle Wu is once again calling for help from the state to handle persistent homelessness and substance use problems along Mass and Cass.
Wu and former Gov. Charlie Baker clashed on the issue of state support for the troubled area in the fall, and her latest call for help comes with Gov. Maura Healey now running the executive branch.
“I’m going to continue renewing our call. We need the state to help on this. People are coming in from all across the state and even beyond. And the right thing to do, the effective thing to do, we see it works, is to have this system that we’ve set up in Boston set up in other parts of the state as well,” Wu said Monday.
For years, homeless and housing-insecure people have flocked to the area at the intersection of Mass. Ave. and Melnea Cass Boulevard, where the South End and Roxbury neighborhoods meet, and tent cities have come and gone in waves. The spot is also a hub for drug dealing, and many of the individuals who live on the streets at Mass and Cass are dealing with opioid-use disorder.
Dozens of bills concerning homelessness have been filed this session. They include legislation filed by Reps. David Rogers and Michael Day and Sen. DiDomenico to create a statewide access to counsel program for eviction cases, a bill by Reps. Smitty Pignatelli and Frank Moran and Sen. Rausch establishing a bill of rights for people experiencing homelessness, and a Sen. Jamie Eldridge bill to eliminate the limits on how much personal property a person can bring into a homeless shelter.
During an appearance Monday on Spark FM, Wu talked Monday about how property limits at homeless shelters disincentivized people from using temporary housing.
“The reason why we had a little bit of an encampment, tent city situation form directly across the street from where a shelter had empty beds, is because the shelter system wasn’t working for people,” Wu said. “They didn’t have medical treatment for those who are living with substance use or didn’t feel safe inside. You didn’t have a place to store your belongings and property. So we’ve been working to transform a lot of our shelters.”
City officials cleared the encampments at the site last winter, but many have trickled back.
Though she is still calling for state help, the Boston mayor said conditions have improved over the last year. The number of people living on the street is going “down and down,” she said.
“After several hundred housing units were created with support services, more than 400 people now have been connected to housing in some way and multiple, I think the number is almost closer to 90 people, in just a year have moved all the way through transitional housing to having a permanent home and a job,” Wu said. “These are incredible stories of inspiration and people just doing everything they can when systems have failed them.”