BOSTON — Police could be given the facility to take away tents and different makeshift shelters at a Boston intersection that’s change into house to a sprawling encampment for the homeless, lots of whom wrestle with psychological well being points and substance abuse dysfunction, Mayor Michelle Wu and different metropolis officers introduced Friday.
The plan additionally requires a brand new short-term shelter for as much as 30 folks within the space often known as Mass and Cass.
The encampment on the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard has change into a haven for drug use and has change into more and more violent, in line with legislation enforcement.
“No one is being served living in a crowded and dangerous encampment, visited by hundreds of people engaged in drug trafficking and violence,” Wu mentioned.
The proposal permitting police to take away tents requires metropolis council approval. Wu mentioned she would file an ordinance with the council Monday.
No tents could be taken down earlier than the folks dwelling in them have been supplied satisfactory housing, the remedy providers they want, transportation, and a spot to retailer their private belongings, metropolis officers mentioned.
“Over the past few weeks, the situation on the ground at Mass and Cass has made it impossible for the (Boston Public Health Commission) and our partners to adequately provide critical services to those in need,” mentioned Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, the town’s commissioner of public well being. “Things need to change, and this ordinance is a necessary step to get the situation under control.”
It would apply not simply to Mass and Cass, however your entire metropolis, so the issue doesn’t simply relocate, police Commissioner Michael Cox mentioned. Police will deploy cell items and may have a presence within the space always.
“We are going to be in every neighborhood with these mobile teams to make sure this does not occur,” Cox mentioned.
In addition to the 30 momentary beds on the Boston Public Health Commission’s campus on Massachusetts Avenue, the town can also be increasing low-threshold shelter house at its emergency shelters.
Homelessness has lengthy been a difficulty within the neighborhood. In January 2022, after notifying folks dwelling within the space, metropolis public works staff driving bulldozers loaded tents, tarps and different detritus, together with milk crates, picket pallets and coolers, into trash vans to be hauled away.
Since then, greater than 500 individuals who have been dwelling on the encampment have gone by way of the town’s six low-threshold housing websites, and 149 have moved into everlasting housing, metropolis officers mentioned.
In current years, cities throughout the nation, together with Los Angeles, Washington and Phoenix , have been battling clearing tent encampments whereas caring for the individuals who dwell in them.
Content Source: www.washingtontimes.com