Showdown over Mass & Cass
City Council has back-to-back decisions
The Wu administration may not support a state of emergency declaration request for Mass and Cass from the City Council this week, given the Board of Health’s decision against taking such action earlier this month, the Herald has learned.
While she plans to call for a vote on a state of emergency at Wednesday’s City Council meeting, City Councilor Erin Murphy acknowledged that the focus of a hearing today on the matter may shift, given that the Board of Health opted against making such a declaration at its Sept. 13 meeting.
“We have declared state of emergencies before and it’s allowed us to put things in action and attack a problem with the resources needed,” Murphy told the Herald. “I’m going to assume that there’s reasons why they don’t think it’s a good idea, so I’m hoping they show up so we can ask them those questions — like what is better then, if it’s not a state of emergency and what should we be doing?”
Murphy was among four councilors who urged the Boston Public Health Commission to declare a state of emergency at Mass and Cass in a Sept. 1 letter. The others were Council President Ed Flynn and Councilors Frank Baker and Michael
Flaherty.
BPHC spokesperson Jonathan Latino said the Board of Health did discuss the matter, as requested, at its Sept. 13 meeting, but ultimately “declined to take action on the recommendation.”
“Because addressing these complicated and entrenched public health and public safety issues requires lasting interventions, including public safety measures that are outside the scope of BPHC’s public health authority, it is important that the legal tools to address them not be tied to a temporary public health emergency,” Latino said in a Monday statement.
Latino said, however, that the Commission “shares the City Council’s urgency on the ongoing crisis at the area known as Mass and Cass, which is why BPHC fully supports the ordinance introduced by Mayor Wu on Aug. 28 that would establish the urgently needed public safety tools to allow the removal of tents and structures that pose serious threats to public safety.”
The ordinance, which would give police the authority to remove homeless encampments provided that individuals are offered shelter and transportation to service, will be discussed at a Thursday hearing of the government operations committee, chaired by Councilor Ricardo Arroyo.
While there’s been chatter of opposition to the ordinance among councilors who either oppose taking away housing or the so-called “fourth shelter” that would be created in the South End as an alternative to the tents, Wu said Monday that she was hopeful that it would be passed in the “next couple of weeks.”
Murphy, who also filed the hearing request, said in a Monday statement that the City Council “has encountered limited responsiveness regarding Mass and Cass, and we’re looking for an explanation why there is reluctance to declare a public health emergency for a situation that clearly warrants it.”
“This is an opportunity for city officials to address the public’s concerns about the ongoing tragedy at Mass and Cass, unprecedented in Boston’s history in its severity and duration,” Murphy said. “The committee is hopeful that this hearing will illuminate for the people of Boston how their tax dollars are being spent to clean up this crisis in a humane, safe manner.”
All seven members of the Boston Public Health Commission and its executive director, along with the city’s Mass and Cass coordinator, police and fire commissioners and chief of emergency medical services were among the people invited to be panelists at today’s hearing.
As of late Monday afternoon, Murphy said she had still not received a response from those she had invited, “which always makes me wary.”