BOSTON — In an “urgent” letter sent to the Boston Public Health Commission Friday afternoon, numerous Boston City Councilors are asking health officials to declare a state of emergency in the area known as Mass and Cass.
Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard has long been the site of a tent city, which includes homeless and ongoing open-air drug use. Residents in surrounding neighborhoods have become increasingly fed up with the rising violence in the area.
“The ‘Mass and Cass’ situation is worsening, not improving,” City Councilor Erin Murphy, Frank Baker, Ed Flynn, and Michael Flaherty wrote. “We write with a sense of urgency in hopes that you take a vote at your next Board of Health meeting on September 13th to declare a State of Emergency. This will give the administration more flexibility to respond to the ongoing tragedy of substance use disorder, mental illness, open use of illegal drugs, violence, criminality, and disturbance of urban life that has gone on for far too long.”
The letter comes on the heels of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu pitching for a new law she says would help stabilize the health crisis, and just a week after Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson was robbed in the area.
Body camera video from Boston Police shows the decaying conditions of the area as they searched for her cell phone.
“We have reached a stage where dramatic intervention is vital,” the letter reads. “Data maintained by the City of Boston reflects a 57 percent increase from June 2023 to July 2023 in the number of people who received substance use treatment. In January of 2022, there were 76 BPD incident reports; for the week of August 13, 2023, there were 170 such reports.”
The violence not only extends to residents in the area but to police officers and first responders as well.
“We know there is no magical solution at Mass and Cass, that the humanitarian crisis was not created overnight and will not be cured that way,” the letter says. “But we believe that the human cost is too great to delay significant, concrete action any further.”
To read the full letter sent to BPHC, click here.
The next board of health meeting is September 13 at 4 p.m.
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