BOSTON (WHDH) - Disrupted at one point by hecklers, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu spoke Thursday on how to tackle conditions at Mass. and Cass, an area of the city struggling with issues of homelessness and substance addiction.
“We, as a municipality, cannot do it alone,” the mayor said. “Our call, our ask, and the results of what we have learned throughout all these 10 months and how to do this and how to do it right, is that we need partnership from the state. We need 1,000 more units of low-threshold supportive housing to be created and sited outside the City of Boston.”
Wu put out a call to action on Thursday, speaking to reporters at Clifford Park at one point, where she cut the conference short due to protesters. Disruptions, including shouts of “Shame on Wu,” iced the event before the mayor moved and resumed speaking elsewhere.
She said that while the number of people and tents at the intersection have gone down over the last year, the city can only do so much. She said some 262 people and 90 tents were set up at the intersection in 2021, which has since gone down to 173 people and 20 tents in 2022.
“The reality is that, as we’ve been able to serve these hundreds of residents who have gone through the housing and treatment pipeline with us, hundreds more residents have arrived,” she said.
The mayor said that to make the kind of difference more people notice, the state and other cities have to help more.
Also speaking Thursday, the head of the Newmarket Business Association admitted many of her members do not see the situation getting any better, but she does.
“If anybody says there’s not progress being made, they’re wrong,” said Executive Director Sue Sullivan.
Critics, however, said that city programs meant to help homeless drug users are making the situation worse, such as the needle exchange program that allows people to trade used needles for clean ones, along with other drug paraphernalia, like pipes and tourniquets.
Wil Cordero said he knows all about what its like, showing 7NEWS his rapsheet from when he was using drugs and dealing them until he got clean more than a decade ago.
“You cannot give away packages of crack pipes and needles, and then turn around, give away millions to try to help them,” Cordero said. “It’s like me selling drugs to you, and then telling you not to get high – isn’t that hypocritical?”
Mayor Wu has defended the needle exchange program, saying it help keeps drug addicts from contracting diseases that might spread to the general population.
Thursday’s remarks came a day after crews cleaned up the Mass and Cass area as people there were moved to side streets. City officials said the work was part of a weekly cleanup effort.
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