BOSTON (WHDH) - A new proposal from Boston Mayor Michelle Wu would give Boston police officers the power to take down tents and tarps in the area of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, Wu announced Friday.
Wu announced the proposal alongside other city leaders at an event in Roxbury as officials continue efforts to tackle the ongoing substance use disorder, mental health and homelessness crisis in the area known as “Mass and Cass.”
Now moving forward, Wu said she will ask the Boston City Council to approve the proposed ordinance allowing police to take down tents and other structures in cases where people living inside are offered alternative places to live, services, transportation and space to store their belongings.
“I want to be clear and acknowledge that the city of Boston so called ‘law enforcement sweeps,’ in the past have not been successful,” Wu said. “That’s not what we’re trying to replicate.”
This time around, Wu said the city has created a temporary overnight space further down Massachusetts Avenue with about 30 shelter beds.
Some, including State Rep. John Moran, have raised concerns.
Speaking this week, Moran said he is concerned that his district, which already has several shelters, is shouldering the burden.
“It doesn’t seem fair, the burden we’re taking on in the South End/Lower Roxbury area,” he said.
City officials, though, say they aren’t just moving people from one place to do the same activity somewhere else.
Instead, officials plan to have a 24-hour police presence in mobile units monitoring the situation.
“I know people may be fearful that it’s going to come in their neighborhood,” said Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox. “But the reality is, we are going to be in every neighborhood just to make sure that doesn’t occur.”
Authorities this week said they don’t want to criminalize homelessness. If someone is breaking the law, though, officials said they will respond.
“We will prosecute people to the fullest extent of the law for serious crimes like violent crimes, stabbings, shootings, human trafficking,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden.
Developments this week come after healthcare workers were pulled out of Mass and Cass earlier this year due to safety concerns.
Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox said authorities, indeed, have seen a double digit increase in gun arrests as well as a double digit increase in assaults in the area recently.
The new plan, Wu said, also comes as the winter months approach, raising the stakes to get people out of tents.
With their new plan, officials now aim to reopen Atkinson Street to cars and clean up the now overcrowded and dirty area around the street.
“This is also not the solution to the opioid crisis or homelessness,” Wu said. “We are going to keep moving on all those efforts together. But this is necessary for the public safety, the health and the wellbeing of all.”
Wu said she will file her ordinance next week.
The ordinance will then go before the City Council where it will need to proceed through a hearing and a vote in a process that could take two months.
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