Questions you may have, and the answers.

What is Mayor Wu’s new plan for Mass and Cass and why do you oppose it?

In August 2023, Mayor Michelle Wu announced a plan she says will fix the growing violence problem on Atkinson Street (the heart of “Mass and Cass”) by permanently clearing Atkinson Street of congregations of people, passing an ordinance to take down the tent encampment there and creating a new “Safe Sleeping Space” shelter and shifting drug-use related services to new sites on Mass Ave and Albany Street in the South End itself.

While we support eliminating tents and providing safety at Mass and Cass, and the notion of clearing Atkinson sounds good on paper, Mayor Wu has offered no plan or answer at all to the question of where the 200 or so people being displaced from Atkinson Street will go next. Inevitably, the drug scene there will reconstitute itself, except now centered on Mass Ave and Albany, drawn by proximity, the new shelter and the relocated services.

A plan like Mayor Wu’s with the foreseeable effect of shifting the Atkinson Street drug scene into the South End and transforming Mass and Cass into “Mass and Albany” is not the answer. Nothing will really be fixed or changed, except the address where things happen. If Mass and Cass is truly a crisis—and it is—then it is time for others to step up and be part of the solution, as for years we in the South End already have.

(Note: A more detailed explanation of Mayor Wu’s plan and its effects can be found here.)

I’ve heard Mayor Wu is asking the City Council to pass a new ordinance regarding Mass and Cass. What would this proposed ordinance do and is the ordinance the same thing as Mayor Wu’s plan to open a new shelter and shift services into the South End? (And how does all this relate to some Councilors’ call for a “State of Emergency” there?)

The proposed ordinance is one element within a larger plan Mayor Wu recently announced. The ordinance focuses solely on the issue of encampment, prohibiting tent encampments on public property in Boston and creating a more explicit legal basis for the City to remove tent encampments where they exist (like on Atkinson Street). There is nothing within the ordinance itself about a new shelter or services.

Unfortunately, as a matter of policy, Mayor Wu wants to tie Boston’s implementation and enforcement of the proposed anti-encampment ordinance to a larger plan creating a new “low barrier” shelter for the stated purpose of housing encampment dwellers (notwithstanding existing shelters have sufficient empty beds), and she has directed that this new shelter will be at the Creamer Building in the South End (785 Albany Street, corner of Mass Ave). Also, she has decided it is not enough to remove tents from Atkinson Street but that the street is to be permanently cleared of the 200 or so people who, up to now, have gathered there, with services now on Atkinson moved onto Albany and Mass Ave in the South End. (A detailed description of Wu’s plan is available here.)

While we support eliminating tents and providing safety at Mass and Cass, and the notion of clearing Atkinson sounds good on paper, Mayor Wu has offered no plan or answer at all to the question of where the 200 or so people being displaced will go next. Inevitably, the drug scene on Atkinson will reconstitute itself, except now centered on Mass Ave and Albany, drawn by proximity, the new shelter and the relocated services.

Four City Councilors recently issued a joint statement calling for a public health “State of Emergency” to be declared regarding the area of Mass and Cass. This is a tool available under state law that would give the City heightened powers, including to remove tent encampments, and could be an alternative to the proposed ordinance. The particular Councilors advocating it have publicly stated they oppose a new shelter or services being placed in the South End or Roxbury.

The bottom line for us is that an ordinance, alternative measure or master plan for addressing tents or any other issues on Atkinson Street could possibly be a good idea, but only if it does not have the effect of shifting more burdens, problems and massive drug use into the South End, transforming Mass and Cass into “Mass and Albany.” By tying the proposed anti-encampment ordinance to creation of a new shelter and moving services in our neighborhood, Mayor Wu’s plan fails this test, which is why we oppose her plan.

Going forward, what is the timeline of events and is Mayor Wu’s plan a done deal?

We think the fate and implementation (or not) of Mayor Wu’s plan is likely to play out over a number of weeks or even months. And, as of early September, it’s not a given that all of it will happen–particularly if South End residents and stakeholders and the elected officials supporting us push back hard.

The Wu Administration has already begun shifting some services from Atkinson Street to the South End and, it’s our understanding they’re now checking bureaucratic boxes, like occupancy permits, needed to convert the Creamer Building (785 Albany Street, corner of Mass Ave) into a new shelter and services site. This does not mean, however, that the new South End shelter and services sites cannot be prevented or curtailed—and the Wu Administration steered toward better solutions—given enough neighborhood resistance and support from allies on the City Council and elsewhere in coming weeks.

The tent removal ordinance piece of Mayor Wu’s plan requires City Council review and approval, a process that normally takes several weeks at least. A public hearing has been scheduled for September 28th, 2023, and there is likely to be debate, and possible amendments offered or added, before the Council holds a vote. Whether Mayor Wu will have the votes needed to pass the proposed ordinance is not yet clear.

Mayor Wu characterizes the “Safe Sleeping Space” shelter she plans to open in the city-owned Miranda Creamer Building in the South End as “temporary” and says it will be used solely to house some 30 people currently living in tents on Atkinson Street. If/when those people depart for other shelter or housing, the beds would not be backfilled (i.e. repopulated with new people), her Administration maintains. Won’t that mean any impacts are short-lived and things go back to as before?

No. History shows Mass and Cass facilities and services characterized as temporary measures very often turn out to be permanent. This same no-backfilling promise was made during the Wu Administration’s previous attempt at ending encampments, when it opened the Roundhouse shelter (located in a former hotel near Atkinson Street). The no-backfilling promise was promptly broken with respect to the Roundhouse shelter, and we anticipate it will be broken again at the Creamer Building (785 Albany Street, corner of Mass Ave). The reality is that people arrive continuously at Mass and Cass from across the state and beyond, many of whom are very similar to the 30 people in question in being unwilling or unable to utilize the ample empty beds in Boston’s traditional shelter system. According to the Wu Administration, the Creamer Building is the only location it’s been able to find anywhere in Boston suitable for the type of “low barrier” shelter it maintains the City must make available in such cases. Hence, if opened, the new Safe Sleeping Space shelter is likely to permanent and full up going forward.

The Wu Administration has said drug use will not be permitted inside the new Safe Sleeping Space shelter and people will not be allowed to congregate outside its doors. Won’t that help limit impacts on the neighborhood?

No. People’s addiction disease compels them to use drugs and they will do so regardless, mostly in the nearest places they can, wherever those may be. We’re skeptical that, even with best efforts, the City will be able to successfully control congregation and drug use in front of the new Creamer Building shelter and services sites Mayor Wu plans to create there and at AHOPE (774 Albany Street). But to the extent people are shooed away from the doors of the new shelter and services sites, they will most likely simply cross the street, go a few blocks farther into the South End and adjoining Roxbury neighborhoods, and be in alleys and parks and on stoops and sidewalks—and the dealers will follow. It’s a lose-lose situation for residents and local businesses.

You’re against Mayor Wu’s new plan for Mass and Cass: does that mean you oppose the ordinance she has filed to boost the City’s legal authority to clear encampments from public property on Atkinson Street and elsewhere?

We believe Boston needs to remove and permanently bar encampments on Atkinson and the city generally, and support whatever tools are legally and practically required to achieve that goal, including a new ordinance. What we oppose is creation of a new South End shelter and shifting of drug-use related services from Mass and Cass into the South End, steps the Wu Administration asserts are the only way to address safety issues on Atkinson Street, along with the ordinance. We disagree these steps are either necessary or helpful and believe their foreseeable effect would be to steer more drug use into the South End and transform Mass & Cass into “Mass & Albany,” which is not the answer.

What’s a better alternative to Mayor Wu’s plan to create a new shelter and shift services into the South End?

The existing Engagement Center building (26 Atkinson Street), which the City spent millions of taxpayer dollars to construct and open only two years ago yet now sits empty and available, is one obvious, far better immediate location for the shelter and services the Wu Administration wants to place in the South End. Looking ahead, we believe the Newmarket Business Association/South End Forum’s recently-unveiled proposal for a new “Recover Boston” housing and treatment community located within Widett Circle could, with City and state backing, could be brought online within a year or less. And long-term, we strongly support the re-creation and expansion of addiction, mental health and homelessness services and housing on the City of Boston’s Long Island property, where they were historically centered prior to their transfer to Newmarket and the South End in 2014 (a move which, along with the arrival of fentanyl that same year, created “Mass and Cass” as a place and a crisis).