The Boston City Council is currently considering an important Mass and Cass issue and potential vote that could affect the South End and you can submit testimony here.

On September 28th, 2023, the Boston City Council held a public hearing on a potential new anti-encampment ordinance, aimed at strengthening the City’s ability to remove unauthorized tent encampments. Unfortunately, Mayor Wu wants to tie implementation and enforcement of this potential ordinance to her recently-announced plan to open a new “Safe Sleeping Space” shelter on Mass Ave opposite Boston Medical Center in the South End. Over the coming week or weeks, the Council will continue to consider the issue, and possibly vote.

Our position is that the ordinance and Boston’s legal authority and ability to remove tents need not, and should not, be made contingent on any new shelter being opened in the South End or Roxbury. We are urging the City Council to reject the Mayor’s linkage of the two and asking that the Council approve the proposed ordinance only if there is language included that makes clear the ordinance’s implementation and enforcement is not contingent on opening such a shelter.

The public is allowed and invited to submit testimony on the matter. It’s vital that South End residents and stakeholders make themselves heard —every single voice counts. We urge you to submit written testimony and do so ASAP. (The Council will not hold a vote on the proposal until the first week of October at the earliest, so testimony submitted after 9/28 but before the vote is still valid and important.)

The easiest way to testify is to click the button above or below and use our prepared testimony. This will bring up a pre-addressed email to the Council and suggested pre-written testimony you can use and submit to the relevant Council committee and its staff contact person as-is, just add your name and address at the end of the message and hit Send. Or you can choose to add to or edit the suggested testimony as you see fit, or insert something else instead.

If you want more more detail about the ordinance, the shelter proposal and how the two relate, check out the Q & A section on our website.

If you’d like to read the testimony we have submitted, which is longer and gets into more detail, that’s available here.

And the City Council web page for this hearing is here.

Thanks for your interest and support!