With winter coming, Mayor Michelle Wu and the Boston police made the right call by shutting down the dangerous homeless encampment and illicit drug mart at Mass. and Cass, a process that wrapped up Wednesday afternoon. Now the challenge for the city will be to ensure that the people who lived there receive adequate services — and that a similar scene does not recur in the South End or anywhere else in the city.
The city’s generally permissive stance toward the encampment, which has existed in some fashion for almost a decade, may have had the best of intentions. But it clearly failed and led to the no-win situation city officials faced this year. The area was increasingly violent; doing nothing would have been unconscionable. But breaking up a drug bazaar that’s been in place this long also carries significant risks.
Going forward, the city’s goal should be to forestall such dilemmas by preventing any new encampments from taking root while supporting law enforcement efforts and doubling down on recovery and housing options for people suffering from addiction. No city, on its own, can solve the interwoven problems of addiction and homelessness, but Boston can at least adjust its approach based on its failures at Mass. and Cass.
At times, hundreds of people slept overnight in the vicinity of Mass. and Cass. The approximately 50 to 55 tents in the area (as of the most recent count) shielded criminal activity. The area also drew drug dealers, sex traffickers, and others who preyed on residents. Despite a large police presence, law enforcement generally could not enter the tents and struggled to maintain order as arrested individuals often quickly returned to the site. Stabbings were common; violence had become so routine that some outreach nonprofits quit working in the area this year. Former mayor Marty Walsh and former acting mayor Kim Janey both attempted to clear away the tents but were met with pushback from civil libertarians and advocates for people with substance use disorder.
The gist of the argument against clearing Mass. and Cass has been that it’s the least bad option: that outreach workers and service providers could support encampment inhabitants on their timeline and eventually could work together toward recovery. Many of the people who lived there were either ineligible for or unwilling to use the city’s homeless shelters. And critics have raised a valid concern: that by breaking up longstanding relationships between opioid users and dealers, there would be a heightened risk of overdose deaths as users sought out new suppliers. Some of these critics were on hand Wednesday, as the police finished clearing tents, to monitor the situation. Cassie Hurd, the director of the Material Aid and Advocacy Program, said she doubted the mayor’s promise to find housing for everyone who had been living at Mass. and Cass.
So far, though, the city appears to be making good on the ordinance proposed by Wu and approved by the City Council last week that requires the city to offer housing, transportation, and storage for personal belongings to everyone evicted from Mass. and Cass.
At a Wednesday press conference, Tania Del Rio, Wu’s director of the Coordinated Response Team, said that since Tuesday, 52 of the inhabitants of Mass. and Cass completed placement through the city, including family reunifications and placement at shelter and low-threshold sites. Twenty-five other inhabitants have accepted offers for placement. “We will be providing storage, transportation, or whatever it is that people need,” Del Rio said. “Outreach workers are back out re-triaging whoever’s present in the encampment at this point, making sure that they’re provided a shelter or a destination.”
Meanwhile, the city will have to contend with the potential for tents popping up in other parts of the city. “Our team is in charge of responding to those,” Del Rio said, pointing to the use of mobile units that will consist of both public health and public safety staff to engage in outreach. “Often encampment occupants don’t know that there is shelter available. … They will take us up on that shelter offer and that’s how we resolve most encampments.” She encouraged residents to alert the city or use the 311 app to flag emerging encampments so that the city can “make a shelter offer.”
The city will also give firm guidance to — and then stand firmly behind — the Boston Police Department, which has been caught between critics accusing it of criminalizing homelessness and neighbors accusing it of doing too little. Some opponents of Wu’s ordinance questioned why it was necessary, pointing to police’s existing powers to address drug crimes, violence, and public tenting. Del Rio said that “BPD requested this ordinance from us to provide that clarity of their authority.” Police officers also have so-called Section 35 authority to involuntarily commit people for treatment. Involuntary commitment has a mixed record and should be the last option — but it should be an option. Wu’s spokesperson said Section 35 is “on the table” as a tool for police but won’t be commonly used and that BPD will track its conversations with particular individuals over time to determine whether involuntary commitments are necessary.
Ultimately, there was nothing humane about Mass. and Cass. It was a daily danger to its inhabitants and the surrounding citizens and businesses. And many of the harms that may come from clearing Mass. and Cass are a downstream consequence of having allowed it in the first place: the relationships with drug dealers that may now be broken might not have formed were it not for the city’s complicity in letting Mass. and Cass become a lawless enclave.
Wu’s critics express frustration that she waited this long to take this step. Now that she has, the most important thing is for her administration to keep working with law enforcement and outreach workers to provide housing options for people in need while preventing the kind of squalor and crime the city tolerated at Mass. and Cass.
Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us @GlobeOpinion.
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