The area around Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue, two major roadways that unite Boston’s South End neighborhood with the neighborhood of Roxbury, is known by locals as a tent city. This area of Boston, nicknamed “Methadone Mile,” has long been known for open drug dealing, high levels of addiction, and a severe lack of clean water and proper hygiene.
In October 2021, Boston’s acting mayor Kim Janey announced an executive order to combat the ongoing humanitarian crisis occurring between Mass and Cass. Though the area has been facing a public health crisis for years, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated concerns. To keep the spread of disease at bay, Janey imposed the removal of tents, claiming that, “tents are not appropriate for housing…they lack clean water and hygiene facilities.”
According to Janey’s memo, if people repeatedly refuse to leave their tents, they may be charged with disorderly conduct. Additionally, if anyone were to pose a serious threat of harm to themselves or others, the Boston Police may petition to involuntarily commit them as a last resort. The prospect of rehabilitation rather than retribution is one that the City of Boston has not implored in their plan, nor in other involvement with the issue at large.
Removal of the tent city has been the only option explored by the City of Boston, but others have different suggestions. The South End-Roxbury Community Partnership, an advocacy group that opposes the forced removal of the tent city, have outlined a different plan for the city to take. Their plan starts with pushing Governor Baker to execute his executive power to intervene and treat the opioid crisis as a prevalent and pervasive Public Health Emergency across the state of Massachusetts. The partnership demands that the state create and fund homelessness and addiction services across Massachusetts as soon as possible while also immediately increasing sanitation access and public health services. The partnership also proposes that the Shattuck Hospital in Jamaica Plain, an adjacent neighborhood, be converted into a temporary emergency recovery center with new supportive housing.
Since Janey’s executive order in October, the city has elected a new mayor, Michelle Wu. Wu has indicated that the city will may explore other options in relation to the homeless community, specifically in the South End. On the issue, Wu feels that “…the urgent need for clean and safe streets can’t come at the expense of destabilizing treatment for those who need it & destroying property of those who have no home to store things, while just moving people on to somewhere else.” Wu’s plan is to have the area between Mass and Cass cleared out by rehoming affected individuals and connecting them to health services by January 12, 2022.