Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has ordered police officers to dismantle a homeless tent city known as “Methadone Mile” starting Wednesday.
Plans were announced in August to clear sprawling encampments in the Mass and Cass area, where violence has escalated and drug use is rampant.
The area has been inhabited for years by tents and tarps housing people struggling with substance addiction.
Residents have already been notified of the start of the process to disband the encampment at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard starting November 1.
City of Boston workers on Monday began the first of three days of cleaning to remove more than 75 tents near the troubled intersection. A new temporary shelter will be built to house up to 30 homeless people, which has raised alarm bells among locals.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu ordered police officers to dismantle a homeless tent city known as ‘Methadone Mile’ starting Wednesday
Residents have been notified of the start of the process to disband the encampment at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard beginning Nov. 1.
The area has been inhabited for years by tents and tarps housing people struggling with substance addiction. Pictured: Boston Public Health workers in the Methadone Mile area on October 25
The mission to clear the encampments involved storing people’s personal belongings and moving about 90 people to shelters.
Any people who attempt to join ‘Methadone Mile’ will be told by social workers and law enforcement that no new tents are allowed.
“There is no magic wand to a very complex, long-standing challenge facing cities across the country with the opioid crisis, homelessness and mental health,” Mayor Wu told WCVB.
“But we know that in Boston we have a very good idea not only of who needs services, but also of how to most effectively connect people to those services.”
Homeless people in the sprawling encampments expressed concern about being asked to leave the area.
Danielle, who is 39 and has been living in a tent in the area for six months, claimed she went to a nearby McDonald’s for a few minutes and returned to find her belongings gone.
She was confused because she was told the deadline to clear out her things was Wednesday.
“I’m literally left with the clothes on my back,” she said GBH News. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
She cried when city workers told her her tent was likely considered abandoned before it was removed.
Danielle, who declined to give her last name, was referred to nearby shelters where up to 100 beds are reserved for those who have moved from the Mass and Cass area.
But she doesn’t see it as a long-term solution, adding: “No one cares where we go. They’re just throwing us out, that’s all.’
Plans were announced in August to clear sprawling encampments in the Mass and Cass area, where violence has escalated and drug use is rampant.
The mission to clear the encampments included storing people’s personal items and moving about 90 people to shelters.
Any people attempting to join ‘Methadone Mile’ will be told by social workers and law enforcement that no new tents are allowed
The crisis that Mayor Wu inherited is said to have continued despite efforts to connect 80 to 90 people sleeping in the tents to social services on most days.
Although this number reportedly dropped from around 200 per day.
Wu’s plan starts by giving police powers to remove tents and tarps before connecting homeless users to housing and other essential services.
Those who lived in the Mass and Cass area will be offered transportation to temporary housing, according to the Boston Herald.
While the third part of the plan is to have a ‘heavy’ police presence in the area to crack down on crime.
City Council President Ed Flynn said he has spoken with Mayor Wu about his desire to see a “zero tolerance” approach to the encampment.
“We have rules and people have to follow the rules,” he said. “If they violate criminal laws, they should be arrested and prosecuted.”
Police Commissioner Michael Cox said: ‘We want to make it clear to those people who come to the city for some other purpose, whether it’s to sell drugs or crime, or to victimize the people who are in these areas , we’re not going to allow that.’
City officials have said the increased enforcement of the encampments will take place in November.
Boston’s Coordinated Response Director Tania Del Rio said last week, “Throughout this process, our commitment to the health, safety and dignity of every Boston resident will remain steadfast.”
In August, plans were announced for one A new short-term shelter is to be built, which would accommodate up to 30 homeless people.
Residents said they fear this will push drug trafficking and substance abuse into their neighborhoods, but a city official said drugs will not be allowed in the building and there will be 24-hour security.
Normally hundreds of people are seen around the encampments at a time, but only 30 people are said to be staying overnight.
They are offered shelter in an indoor facility on Massachusetts Avenue, near a Boston Medical Center building. Clinical services will be provided to men, women and couples.
Hundreds of people are usually seen around the encampments at a time, but it is said that only 30 people stay overnight
There were an average of seven attacks per week in the area, which is more than double the average for the rest of the city
The city’s health commissioner, Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, previously said, “In recent 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.
“Things need to change, and this ordinance is a necessary step to get the situation under control.”
She said those being moved to the temporary shelter are “chronically unhoused individuals with nowhere to go.”
Residents were informed of the plans at a virtual community meeting, with the aim of having Atkinson Street cleared by November.
Ojikutu said the solution was a temporary measure to “restore some order” and reassured locals that “this is not a long-term plan at all.”
But South End residents were unimpressed and believe an unnecessary burden has been placed on their neighborhood.
Ojikutu stressed that drugs would not be allowed into the shelter and that security would be on duty 24 hours a day.
She said the space would have a metal detector and people staying there would have to register with officials, without council being allowed out.
Homelessness has long been a problem in the area. In January 2022, after notifying people living in the area, city public works employees bulldozed tents, tarps and other waste, including milk crates, wooden pallets and coolers, into garbage trucks for disposal.
Since then, more than 500 people living in the encampment have visited the city’s six low-barrier housing sites, and 149 have moved into permanent housing, city officials said.
The violence in Mass. and Cass area has reached a “new level of public safety alert,” Mayor Wu said.
There were an average of seven attacks per week in the area, which is more than double the average for the rest of the city.