Four city councilors are urging the Boston Public Health Commission to declare a state of emergency in the Mass and Cass zone, saying that “dramatic intervention” is needed to address the area’s decade-long “humanitarian crisis.”
Such action would give the Wu administration “more flexibility to respond to the ongoing tragedy of substance-use disorder, mental illness, open use of illegal drugs, violence, criminality and disturbance of urban life,” Councilors Frank Baker, Michael Flaherty, Ed Flynn and Erin Murphy wrote in a Friday letter to BPHC.
Murphy is also chair of the council’s Public Health Committee and Flaherty head of Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee.
The four, who represent the more conservative wing of the City Council, are calling for the Board of Health to vote to declare a state of emergency at its next meeting on Sept. 13.
“We have reached a stage where dramatic intervention is vital,” the letter states. “We believe that the risk exists of compounding the ‘Mass and Cass’ problem by attempting politically expedient solutions that do not address the underlying problems.”
The councilors criticized part of Mayor Michelle Wu’s plan to crack down on crime and cut down on homelessness in the troubled area, stating that her proposal to “relocate clinical services and add a shelter at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Albany Street would continue adding to the undue burden already shouldered by the South End and Roxbury neighborhoods.”
Wu has said the new 30-bed shelter would temporarily house individuals displaced by an ordinance she is proposing, that would give police the authority to clear out homeless encampments at Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard.
The tents, the mayor and police say, are providing shelter for a much smaller number of people than the crowds using them to shield violence, drug and human trafficking, and weapons. The City Council will vote on the ordinance in October.
The four councilors said the problem at Mass and Cass stretches back nearly a decade, but cautioned that it is one that is “worsening, not improving.” Their letter cites city data that reflects a 57% increase in the number of people who received substance use treatment from June to July of this year.
According to city data, the number of Boston Police Department incident reports has skyrocketed since January 2022, when the Wu administration last tried to enforce an encampment ban at Mass and Cass. That month, there were 76 reports compared to 170 during a weeklong period this past August, the letter states.
“Outside healthcare providers have pulled out of the area over safety concerns to their employees,” the letter states. “Businesses are suffering, youth activity programs have been jeopardized, and our first responders are subject to dangerous conditions that exceed what should reasonably be expected of people already performing difficult jobs.”
“Long ago, this exceeded the quality of life threshold and has become an outright public health emergency,” the letter goes on to state, pointing to emergency declarations made for the COVID-19 pandemic and more recently, for the “surge in immigrants overwhelming the commonwealth’s capacity.”
What is occurring in the area known as Methadone Mile “is similar in its multifaceted complexity, and no less dire in its threat to human life and well-being,” the councilors said.
The letter does not provide specifics on what actions the city could undertake by declaring a state of emergency. A similar declaration made by BPHC at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, allowed the city to establish an incident command structure, and deploy staff and resources to perform crisis response and healthcare coordinations, the mayor’s office said in a prior statement.
“We know there is no magical solution at Mass and Cass, that the humanitarian crisis was not created overnight and will not be cured that way,” the councilors wrote. “But we believe that the human cost is too great to delay significant, concrete action any further.”
A spokesperson for the Boston Public Health Commission did not respond to a request for comment.