Boston Mayor Michelle Wu unveiled plans that would give police the authority to clear out homeless encampments and crack down on the increased crime occurring at the intersection of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue.
To cushion the blow of removing their tents and tarps, Wu said the city would seek to house the displaced individuals at a temporary 30-bed shelter, which would open at a nearby campus operated by the Boston Public Health Commission.
“Today, I believe we’re moving towards a very important phase change that will make a significant difference for the many, many communities made up of workers and residents at Mass and Cass,” Wu said at a Friday press conference. “But this is also not the solution to the opioid crisis or homelessness.”
Wu said she plans to file an ordinance Monday that would give the Boston Police Department the authority to remove tents and tarps at Mass and Cass, giving more teeth to an executive order she first tried to enforce in January 2022. The ordinance needs City Council approval and will be introduced at next Wednesday’s meeting.
The mayor has said the number of people using the tents for shelter is currently much smaller, at 30-40, than the hundreds who use the structures to shield violence, drug and human trafficking, and store weapons.
Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox said the ordinance would give his department the ability to enforce the law, and bring the criminal activity occurring inside the tents “out to the light.”
Cox said police are handcuffed by the city’s anti-encampment policies, which require that individuals be given 48 hours notice before tents are removed.
“This is just not a realistic way for us to be able to address the situation,” he said, later adding, “We’re seeking authority to shut down the spaces that are creating the unsanitary and dangerous conditions and supporting the drug market that goes on, as well as the other criminal activities that are in the area.”
While efforts taken by other large cities to clear out homeless encampments have faced lawsuits from the American Civil Liberties Union, Cox and other speakers on Friday insisted that Boston’s ordinance would be constitutional and legal.
Wu said structures will be prohibited on sidewalks and public property, provided that affected individuals are offered shelter and transportation. It also requires that the city maintain a robust program to store their personal belongings, her office said.
“We have been working to try to ensure that even the very first draft and subsequent drafts of the ordinance are in complete compliance with all the constitutional requirements,” Wu said.
She added, “It’s been very helpful that in Massachusetts, the Attorney General’s office had previously issued some directives related to this issue, after a different city enacted an ordinance that did not include requirements for shelter and some of the other things that are here.”
Cox added that his department is “not trying to criminalize homelessness,” but said police will “have no choice but to enforce the law” and make an arrest, if there is a lack of compliance with a potential anti-encampment ordinance.
Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden added, “Higher levels of criminality will not be tolerated and we will prosecute people to the fullest extent of the law for committing serious crimes,” pointing to the stabbings, shootings, human and drug trafficking occurring there.
To ensure compliance, the plan calls for police to maintain a presence at Mass and Cass, to restore Atkinson and Southampton streets to vehicular traffic areas, and in mobile locations in other parts of the city, to prevent the criminal activity from popping up in other neighborhoods once the crowds are dispersed, Cox said.
Wu said, however, that the increased police presence won’t lead to “so-called law enforcement sweeps,” a measure a group of city councilors and state officials have called for, “which in the past have not been successful.”
The mayor’s new plan was announced after weeks of speculation, prompted by her remarks that the violence, drug and human trafficking occurring at Mass and Cass had reached a “new level of public safety alarm” this summer.
The situation prompted all non-city teams to pull their outreach workers from the area, which one provider described Friday as a “heart-wrenching decision” that had a “profound” impact on patients.
Wu said the new strategy should not be interpreted as her administration admitting that its past approaches for the area had failed.
Rather than “totally switching direction,” Wu said her team is “actually doubling down” on what’s already been working, in terms of connecting people with transitional housing and addiction treatment options.
Part of that effort will continue with a new temporary shelter at 727 Massachusetts Ave., where 30 beds will be provided while the city tries to stabilize the area also known as Methadone Mile. During that time, services will shut down on Atkinson Street.
Wu addressed the blowback the so-called “fourth shelter” has prompted from the South End community this week, saying that the intention is to shut it down after those individuals are connected with permanent and low-threshold housing.
Further, the shelter would open only after an ordinance is passed, and enforcement begins, Wu said, with plans to “have all the pieces finalized and then operationalized by this fall when the weather becomes colder.”
