South End leaders proposed Wednesday a tougher, tightly coordinated plan to confront open drug use and homelessness at Boston’s long-troubled Mass. and Cass intersection.
Gathered at the Hampton Inn on Massachusetts Avenue, members of the South End/Roxbury/Newmarket Working Group on Addiction and Recovery said their recommendations aim to knit together systems of public health, public safety and the courts.
“The status quo is not acceptable,” said Rep. John Moran, a South End Democrat. “Over the past years, residents of the South End, Roxbury, Newmarket and across our neighborhoods have experienced a visible rise in congregate outdoor drug use, especially in the spring and summer months. The reality has carried serious consequences, public health risks, a strain on services and impacts on neighborhood safety, including break-ins and other crimes.”
The framework, requested by Mayor Michelle Wu last summer, builds on the city’s recent enforcement push at the intersection of Mass. Ave. and Melnea Cass Boulevard, where officials say the police presence has been heightened and outreach teams have moved hundreds of people into treatment since September.
Four Pillars of Recommendations
Boston City Councilor John FitzGerald, who chairs the council’s Committee on Public Health, Homelessness and Recovery, outlined four primary recommendations:
- Expand and make permanent the Boston Police Department’s Neighborhood Engagement Safety Team (NEST);
- Expand and make permanent the Co-Response Outreach, Recovery Engagement (CORE) Team, with bolstered case management;
- Establish a specialty court focused on pre-arraignment diversion;
- Support long-term housing and short-term sober living options.
“That’s the meat and potatoes,” FitzGerald said.
The NEST unit works alongside clinicians and recovery coaches, including individuals with lived experience. The CORE team would serve as the front door of the system, engaging people who are using drugs outdoors. These teams are already on the streets, often offering people a choice: enter treatment or face the justice system.
Kellie Young, director of the city’s Coordinated Response Team, said the approach may look harsh from the outside but functions differently on the ground.
“We work alongside law enforcement, and from the outside, it may look — being on the inside is very different,” Young said. “I’ve had numerous people like Oliver come back and say to us, ‘It may not be the way we want it to go, but thank God we went that way. I couldn’t make a decision for myself.’”
Oliver D’Agostino, 37, told his own story at the press conference, describing years living outdoors near Mass. and Cass while struggling with addiction, and cycling in and out of detox before finally entering sustained recovery with the help of the city’s outreach workers.
Young said since Sept. 15, the CRT has placed “close to 480 people in inpatient substance use treatment.”
“We have not turned a single person away that’s wanted treatment,” she added.
The Working Group is made up of community leaders, including those within the Newmarket Business Improvement District and South End Forum. Moran, FitzGerald and Young have met with the community group over the last six months since Wu requested they develop recommendations for a new approach at Mass. and Cass.
Asked whether she supports the program, Mayor Michelle Wu said in a statement: “Alongside partners in community, public health, and across government, Boston is working to ensure strong pathways into recovery and quality of life in every neighborhood, including an end to outdoor substance use. I thank the Working Group for carefully reflecting the shared progress of the many city departments engaged in our Coordinated Response Team, for their strong endorsement of the Boston Police Department’s NEST initiative, and for highlighting more opportunities to meet our shared goals. The City is focused on active preparations for warmer weather and continuing to engage with all stakeholders on our coordinated approach.”
A Specialty Court to ‘Complete the Cycle’
The most novel element of the recommendations is the proposed specialty court, which would centralize cases involving people repeatedly arrested for drug-related offenses at Mass. and Cass and divert them into treatment before traditional arraignment.
“We want to call it a specialty court. And ultimately, the core of this work is diversion,” Young said. “We want people to be diverted into the treatment and the help that they need.”
The goal, Young said, is “more of a centralized system for these people that we’re seeing over and over again, because most of them, or a lot of them, I should say, are already involved with the judicial system. So we want to leverage that to increase the likelihood that they will stay on the pathway to recovery.”
Working Group Chair Stephen Fox described the approach as a long-sought integration of previously disconnected systems.
“We believe that we have found a magic sauce,” Fox said. “Being able to use public safety, public health and judicial initiatives together in an integrated fashion.”
Fox pointed to retired Judge Kathleen Coffey’s homelessness specialty court held at Pine Street Inn as proof of concept.
“That’s why we’re saying that we need to have that component at the judicial piece in order to complete the cycle,” he said. “So recovery at the front end, public safety all through and then judicial initiatives and judicial reform within it.”
‘You Are Going to Get Clean’
While speakers emphasized compassion Wednesday, they also made clear the plan would place clearer boundaries around open drug use at Mass. and Cass.
Sue Sullivan, executive director of the Newmarket Business Improvement District, framed the plan as a balance between recovery and neighborhood safety.
“There are those who would say that what we are doing, pushing people to try to choose recovery, doesn’t work,” Sullivan said. “Some would say that when individuals are incentivized to go into recovery, 50% will fail, and they will be more vulnerable when they come back out on the street. The reality is that on the streets, 0% are getting better, and many overdose daily. We cannot stand by and continue to let this happen.”
She argued that pairing long-term case management with removing people from street-level drug activity “will work to improve the quality of life for everyone.”
FitzGerald was even more direct about the cultural shift he hopes to see.
“If you are coming to Mass. and Cass, if you’re coming to the South End, you are going to get clean, right?” he said. “It might not be the first time we see you, maybe not the second time, but at some point, if you keep coming down here, you’re going to end up on the road to recovery.”
D’Agostino on Wednesday recounted his first encounter with CRT workers.
“At the time, I was convinced they were undercover cops, disguised as parking authorities,” he said. “I was suspicious, but when I asked around the other guys said, ‘No, that’s Erica. She’s from CRT. She’s cool.’ That word ‘cool’ was the foundation of trust that eventually saved my life.”
He described relapsing after years of sobriety and living “like a piece of cattle” on a bike path near a Boston Water and Sewer facility.
“They respected the line. They knew if they pushed too hard, I’d be gone,” he said. “When I decided to finally pull the trigger and ask for help, Tommy was right there. He got me into detox time and time again.”
After a brain bleed landed him in the hospital, D’Agostino said CRT staff showed up repeatedly.
“That was the turning point,” he said. “I realized these strangers care more about me than I cared about myself. It was time to hold myself accountable.”
Budget and State Role
Pressed on the cost of the recommendations, Moran acknowledged the group does not yet have a precise estimate.
Major expenses include expanding the teams on the street, establishing the specialty court — “it needs to be bespoke to what we need,” he said — and investing in short-term sober housing, “two months, for example, 150 people.”
Those are “the building blocks,” he said.
Moran noted he sits on the House Ways and Means Committee as lawmakers begin work on the fiscal year 2027 budget. The committee’s budget is expected in April.
“We’re gonna have to do this quickly, but we have the building blocks. We just need to figure out a better concept of those hard dollars,” he said.
He said state leaders, including the governor and attorney general, have copies of the plan, and emphasized that “the state invests a lot in Mass. and Cass.”
FitzGerald said he has pushed to explore a more regional response, acknowledging that many individuals at Mass. and Cass are not Boston residents.
“There is a need to be a good neighbor and ask for that approach,” he said.
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