The scene along Melnea Cass Boulevard (also known as Mass and Cass) last week. The tents have been removed, but the city’s plan to clean up the area last fall was short-lived. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)
Debates are underway in Boston about how to address a worsening open-air drug market in the state and Massachusetts that came back in full force this summer and has seen frequent spillovers into surrounding neighborhoods.
Three elected officials representing affected areas of Massachusetts and Cass County are working with community and business leaders to revive a proposal to establish transitional recovery campuses that would help clean up problem areas by providing 24-hour treatment for addicts who frequent the area.
City officials told the Herald that the facility is a temporary solution until the city rebuilds a bridge leading to the 35-acre recovery campus on Long Island, but that could take at least another five years.
“We’re in a very tough situation right now,” said state Assemblyman John Moran, who represents the South End and is one of the driving forces behind the plan. “I’m not going to sugar coat it. We’re in a situation where we’re seeing more and more usage every day.”
While there are fewer people out than last summer and no tents due to a new city ordinance that went into effect last fall, Moran said this year has definitely been “worse” in that illegal drug use, crime and filth have permeated the neighborhood. For example, he said he got a call on Thursday from a resident complaining about human waste in their backyard.
“People are fed up,” said Boston City Councilman John Fitzgerald, whose district includes Dorchester and the South End. “If I lived here with my kids, I’d be furious.”
Moran, Fitzgerald and state Sen. Liz Miranda, R-Roxbury, have been in discussions with Mayor Wu about moving forward with construction of the Interim Recovery Campus, and so far the mayor’s team has been positive, Moran and Fitzgerald said.
“I can’t speak for them as to whether the sale of ‘Recover Boston’ will be successful, but I can say that they have been given the opportunity to put it out there, and it’s a step in the right direction,” Moran said.
Sue Sullivan, executive director of the New Market Business Improvement District, which represents businesses in Massachusetts and the Cass County area, is compiling a list of new potential locations for the facility. The district introduced plans for a similar revitalized campus at Wy Dot Circle last year, but those plans were partly shelved due to complications surrounding the MBTA’s land purchase.
She declined to reveal the exact location but said they are considering a site off Massachusetts and Cass, which already has a roughly six-story building that could be renovated to house a range of mental health, detox and treatment services on each floor.
“We are committed to not introducing any new services in Newmarket,” Sullivan said. “We don’t think we should put everybody in one place, and we don’t think it’s a good idea to have a recovery facility where drug dealers are sitting outside your front door, so we’re looking around, but we don’t want one in this close proximity.”
Newmarket shops have remained resilient and largely thrived through more than a decade of worsening conditions in Massachusetts and Cass, but the daily scenes of drug use, crime and human suffering outside their store windows are impacting shopkeepers’ livelihoods and are hard to bear, Sullivan said.
She was aiming for a roughly $10 million revitalized campus project that could be up and running in six to eight months using a combination of government and private funding, which she said was the cost estimate and timeline for the Whiddett Circle plan.
As for Whiddett Circle itself, Moran said the location is effectively out of options.
“We just need to find the right locations to guide some of these people and make sure they get services and get out of what is currently the blatant drug market in Massachusetts and Massachusetts,” Fitzgerald said.
“I think this is a way to disrupt the comfort that some of the people who hang out there are starting to feel,” he said, “so people are less willing to hang out there, buy their drugs there, and use their drugs in one place.”
Sullivan and the three elected officials plan to present their proposal to the Wu administration at a community meeting scheduled for early August. Sullivan said she is optimistic the city is “listening carefully” to their proposal. She also said Newmarket’s past outreach efforts inspired former Mayor Marty Walsh to work to rebuild the Long Island Bridge into a revitalization campus.
The proposal is one of several options under consideration by the Wu administration, which is considering whether to implement a new plan or tweak an existing one that Mayor Michelle Wu proposed last summer to address crime and homelessness in the neighborhood, which Moran and Fitzgerald said has been successful in removing the tents but has not stopped crowds or drug dealing.
But they stopped short of calling the mayor’s plan a “failure.” City Councilman Ed Flynn, who represents South Boston and the South End and has been a driving force behind city policing in his area, called the plan a “failure” in calling for a new plan on Wednesday.
“I think what we’re realizing right now is we have more work to do,” Fitzgerald said. “My conversations with the mayor and his team so far have been positive, and I think the mayor is open to looking at more effective approaches.”
The mayor’s office did not elaborate on future plans for addressing the situation on Mass and Cass, but defended its current approach, pointing to statistics showing crime, drug-related arrests and crowding are down this summer compared to last year.
“Since taking steps to close permanent encampments and expand services, city departments continue to partner with community organizations, neighborhood groups and elected officials to address the various challenges that arise each season,” Wu said in a statement.
“Throughout the height of summer, we have implemented plans focused on curbing outdoor drug use, connecting unhoused people to housing and recovery services, and keeping our neighborhoods clean and safe.”
Regarding the proposed recovery campus, a Wu spokesperson said, “The city will continue to work closely with community leaders and elected officials to achieve our housing and recovery services goals and improve public safety and quality of life for the surrounding area.”
Boston, Massachusetts – A view along Melnea Cass Boulevard, also known as Mass and Cass. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald) Boston, Massachusetts – A view along Melnea Cass Boulevard, also known as Mass and Cass. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald) Boston, Massachusetts – A view along Melnea Cass Boulevard, also known as Mass and Cass. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald) Boston, Massachusetts – A view along Melnea Cass Boulevard, also known as Mass and Cass. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)
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