Mass and Cass is a crisis with two faces. One tells a story of street homelessness, addiction and mental health issues. It’s a story of people with little progress and even less hope. It breaks our hearts. It’s a human tragedy.
The other tells a story of pervasive public disorder and a city that has lost control of drug dealing, human trafficking and property crime. It’s a story about a problem that began around Melnea Cass Boulevard and Mass Ave and has spread across the city. To the South End, to Roxbury and South Boston, to Downtown Crossing and Boston Common, and around Copley Square – victimizing residents and businesses alike. It’s a threat to our city’s public safety.
The time has come for leadership that can effectively address both sides of the Mass and Cass crisis: the human tragedy and the public safety threat. Yesterday, I released a plan that centers on three key actions: 1) prioritizing public order and community safety; 2) adopting a recovery-first model for ending addiction; and 3) providing strong support for housing and services that are proven to help people get back on their feet.
Here’s how my plan works:
First, it makes enforcing the law and public safety a top priority. Under Mayor Wu, drug-use-driven property crime, discarded needles, trespassing and outdoor living, have reached intolerable levels in a growing number of neighborhoods. One Boston mom who lives near Beacon Hill told me she is afraid to take her kids to school. When she walks around the neighborhood, she shields her children from addicts who are overdosing, shooting up and urinating in the Common and in the Public Gardens. This isn’t the Boston any of us want. It’s unsafe, it’s frightening and it’s all too common.
Why has this happened? In large part because Mayor Wu has downplayed the severity of these problems and the threat they pose to public safety. As a result, she has deliberately deemphasized the need to enforce state laws and city ordinances – and public drug consumption, trespassing, and encampment on private and public property have become accepted.
As Mayor, I will charge our police with enforcing these laws. Enforcing the law isn’t just about being tough. Once it is clear that public drug use and indefinite street living is no longer an option, the more likely it will be that people seek and accept the help they need.
We will take the same approach enforcing laws against property crimes driven by drug use such as shoplifting, package theft and car break-ins. I will ensure these prosecutions are handled in specialty courts, such as Recovery Court and Mental Health Court, so we can use the judicial system to steer people into treatment where possible.
The goal will be for the addicted to receive services, not sentences. But we can’t get there unless stealing and quality of life crimes have consequences.
I’ll also replace the three districts in our police department currently responsible for Mass and Cass with a unified police command framework that directly reports to BPD’s most senior leaders. I will re-establish the successful 24/7 police substation in Downtown Crossing, with a specialized booking system and staffed with medical and treatment professionals, as well as law enforcement.
Lastly, I’ll bring back the successful and cost-effective Community Syringe Redemption Program that recovered 765,000 used needles which otherwise could have been left on the street. We know this program works. Why? Because after Mayor Wu ended it last summer, discarded needles surged by 50% in the last six months of the year.
Second, my plan focuses on “recovery-first.” Having worked first-hand with the addiction and unhoused communities for decades, I know our first priority when addressing addiction must be recovery. Unfortunately, the Wu Administration’s approach focuses almost entirely on “harm reduction” that too often leaves people perpetually stuck in the grip of addiction.
I will establish a “Recover Boston” campus to provide seamless addiction recovery, mental health services and temporary housing support. The Wu Administration dismissed this proposal when it was made by community and business groups – despite the proven safety of this structured setting for them and the community.
One of Mayor Wu’s first acts in office was to abolish the city/community leader task force on Mass and Cass issues with the state Secretary of Health and Human Services. That was also a mistake. Homelessness and addiction don’t go away when they cross a municipal line or state border – they just exist somewhere else. Bostonians should know: at least half of those in the Boston shelter and homelessness services system come from outside our city. As Mayor, I will revive this program and collaborate with the state, neighboring municipalities and community stakeholders to jointly fund the program.
Third, my plan supports housing & services that get people off the streets. Boston has long had strong shelter and homelessness services. But far too many continue to live—and even die—on the streets. To help people stabilize their lives and get back on their feet, I will ensure sufficient shelter capacity to provide a bed for every individual on the street. We won’t do this alone. I will work with the Commonwealth to add back the beds it lost when it recently closed homeless facilities on its Shattuck Hospital campus. I will also continue strategies such as widespread access to lifesaving Narcan and sterile syringes.
Instead of the Supervised Drug Consumption Sites Mayor Wu wants to open in Boston neighborhoods under the guise of “harm reduction”—which I think is a mistake—I will support an integrated system for individuals in recovery that provides long-term residential treatment, education and vocational training. This approach has been highly successful in places like Durham, North Carolina.
Lastly, as Mayor, I will employ people who are themselves in recovery or have real familiarity with substance use to bring their expertise and empathy to this problem. Whether it’s the world leading hospital and medical research institutions that call our city home or people who understand what it’s like to struggle with addiction, Boston needs to leverage its addiction and mental health expertise.
For me, this issue is personal. When I announced my candidacy, I spoke about how much I learned volunteering in a methadone clinic during graduate school – and how I learned that everyone has something to teach us. On no issue is this truer than when it comes to breaking the cycle of substance use.
The time has also come to acknowledge that Mayor Wu’s approach—replacing longtime effective partnerships and enforcing the law with a go-it-alone strategy backed by untested, unproven theories on addiction and homelessness—has exacerbated the problems at Mass & Cass. And it’s spread to neighborhoods across the city.
Mass and Cass is a human tragedy. And it’s a public safety threat that the Mayor doesn’t want to talk about because she doesn’t know how to fix it. But she does want to talk about how Boston is the safest city in America. And the people I talk to don’t feel safe at all.
So I will talk about Mass & Cass. More importantly, I will get to work on Mass & Cass in partnership with the army of people who care deeply about this problem and want to solve it.