A year after Mass. and Cass tent clearance, residents and businesses say safety concerns have spread

Residents across Boston say they are seeing more people in crisis and new levels of drug paraphernalia and human waste.

About a year after the Wu administration implemented a plan that cleared a major tent encampment near the area known as Mass. and Cass, some Boston residents and officials are saying that one problem was replaced by another.

There was a common refrain during a City Council hearing Tuesday: that the city’s crackdown on the Atkinson Street encampment forced those struggling with substance use disorder and homelessness into other areas of Boston, causing a variety of public safety and quality-of-life issues.

A decade ago, the city’s Long Island recovery campus closed. Since then, the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard became the epicenter of the region’s housing affordability, mental health, and substance abuse crises. The city’s tent-removal plan last year was spurred by a spike in safety concerns on Atkinson Street, where an open-air drug market had formed.

“This has escalated — even when the tents were removed, the problem remained. The problem was spread out,” Councilor Ed Flynn said during Tuesday’s hearing.

Mayor Michelle Wu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

‘We have a system that is broken’

Flynn, who has become an outspoken critic of Wu, said that he is continuing to hear from residents across the city about ongoing problems. Residents testified that they were seeing more people in distress, openly using drugs and sleeping in new areas away from Mass. and Cass. Some said they now see new levels of trash in their neighborhoods, from used needles to the remnants of stolen packages to actual human waste.

Flynn called for a more coordinated approach from city and state leaders, with an emphasis on drug treatment and a “zero tolerance” policy for those undermining public safety.

“They may not want to go in there, but being in a drug treatment program is the best thing for them,” Flynn said, referring to those dealing with substance use disorder.

Multiple members of the administration were present during the first part of the hearing to testify in front of councilors. Executive Director of the Boston Public Health Commission Bisola Ojikutu said that the city has made notable progress since clearing Atkinson Street. Flynn, in a back and forth with Ojikutu, said he was worried about the fact that opioid deaths rose in Boston last year despite a statewide decrease. But Ojikutu highlighted new data that shows that opioid-related overdose deaths in Boston dropped by 33% in January-April of this year, compared to the same period in 2023.

The city’s approach, Ojikutu said, is to work with people experiencing these problems on an individual basis, to “meet people where they are at.” This person-by-person strategy was a core component of the tent ordinance implementation last year. Ojikutu acknowledged that many challenges remain, and foremost among them is a need to fill in the gaps between the different stages of care and recovery.

“We have a system that is broken for people who are living with substance use disorder,” she said. “What we need is a much stronger continuum of care for individuals who are living with substance use disorder and who are unsheltered.”

A coordinated response?

Away from Mass. and Cass, one area of concern is Nubian Square in Roxbury, Ojikutu said. She pointed to the Nubian Square Task Force — a coalition of community members, public health organizations, and businesses that coordinate resources to help those in need — as an effective example of finding solutions.

Kelly Young, director of the city’s Coordinated Response Team, said that she told staff to visit both the Grove Hall neighborhood and Nubian Square five nights a week. Over the past three weeks, they have disassembled three encampments, she said. Young described law enforcement as the “best deterrent,” something that will increase the likelihood of people participating in drug treatment programs.

“A lot of the population are unmotivated and disengaged,” Young said.

Cassie Hurd, executive director of the Material Aid and Advocacy Program, pushed back on assertions that people living outside in these areas are resistant to help. Forcing people in crisis to move around is not good for them or for their communities, she said. Hurd called the premise of the hearing itself “fraught” because it focused on the side effects on businesses and people with permanent homes. “Criminalization and coercion” are not the answers, she said.

“If this meeting was configured in a different way, and if we had a different approach, listening to unhoused people who use drugs, who should be leading this conversation, we would be in a very different place,” Hurd said.

Safety and security

Cheryl Schondek, chief operating officer of The Greater Boston Food Bank, said that in recent years, the organization has been forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on heightened security that could have been used to buy food for the hungry. But safety incidents involving the GBFB have become less frequent in recent months, and the GBFB is spending less on security this year.

Dan Humphreys, deputy superintendent with the Boston Police Department’s bureau of field services, said that police began a new “phase” in their operations around Mass. and Cass about a month ago in order to respond to “congregant drug use.” This involved reallocating officers to problem areas near Mass. and Cass and a broader deployment citywide that focuses on responding to areas where specific complaints come from.

“You have different measures of crime, you have stats and how do people feel, right? So what we’re trying to do is make those match,” Humphreys said. “We can talk about stats all day. At the Mass. and Cass area, overall violent crime is down 27%. Robberies are down 25%, the list goes on. But if people don’t feel safe there, it doesn’t mean anything.”

Katherine Kennedy, a Beacon Hill resident and mother of two young children, said she now carries a sharps container in her diaper bag. It is a response to a notable rise in the amount of drug paraphernalia now littering Boston Common, the Charles River Esplanade, and Cambridge Street, she said.

“Average citizens, including children and the elderly, need their homes and public spaces to be safe. And folks with complex behavioral health issues like addiction need high-support environments with guardrails,” Kennedy said. “Letting these two populations mix is failing both groups.”

Staff Writer

Ross Cristantiello, a general assignment news reporter for Boston.com since 2022, covers local politics, crime, the environment, and more.