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Roxbury, Mattapan residents don't want Long Island programs opened near them

UPDATE: Roxbury Here has a much more detailed report on the Roxbury meeting.

WGBH reports on unease about the city's plans to relocate some of the transitional substance-abuse programs that were on Long Island to an existing public-health complex in Mattapan and the newly closed Radius Hospital in Roxbury.

City officials say they need to find space for the residential treatment programs for the three to five years it will take to rebuild the bridge to Long Island, shut as unsafe in October; residents say the programs will mean more crime.

Neighborhoods: 


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Comments

I think West Roxbury needs to do its part and step up to handle hosting social services like every other neighborhood in the city.

Either that or we need a regional facility in Weston/Wellesley/Winchester/etc. to keep surrounding communities from shamefully deporting their needy to Boston.

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Where in West Rox would you put them? Westie High? And West Roxbury already has a Housing Project and a few Half Way Houses around Weld St and the VA.

All that granite downtown, yup it was mined in Westie. The city dump, yup that was located once in Westie. All those NStar trucks that show up to your house, yup West Rox.

Learn about the neighborhood befor you run your garbage disposal.

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You mean the senior-citizen project on Spring Street?

[Assumes Paul Hogan-like accent]: Ha ha ha, that's not a housing project. [Points to Bromley-Heath]. THAT's a housing project .

Also, NStar trucks aren't based just in West Roxbury - they also have trucks coming out of Hyde Park Ave. in Hyde Park (and probably other places). And that dump has been a rather nice park for a long time now, so that's no longer a really good argument, either.

But, yes, in addition to the quarry, West Roxbury is also home to the city's only trailer park.

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Washington across from Draper Field. Come on Adam, you live down the street.

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That building with the big rock out front? That's low-income housing? If so, I admit it, I never knew that - thought that was for seniors, too. But I also thought that was down in the part of West Roxbury that some people don't like admitting is in West Roxbury, so what do I know?

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I'm from Rozie, so what do I know. Growing up here I veiw both Rozie and Westie as the same. We have no youth sports so I spent and equal amount of time in both.

You right, it's like American Legion in Rozie.

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Spring and Rockland T. are 'elderly/disabled' developments.

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Dude , I think he meant National Grid , the old Boston Gas operations center that came from JP. This Long Island thing is making people crazy. The Radius Hospital became available, but it's location is inconvenient for some. The old Lemuel Shattuck , Boston State Hospital , and the Chronic Disease Hospital on River street Matrapan, if these facilities still stand unused , would also be good locations , but as in the Radius case , also not as convenient as out of place Long Island.Forget rebuilding the bridge, make a place in the city , logistically logical.

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Half of the people are from the S Shore, maybe it's time for Quincy/Baintree to pull their weight.

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Well , if you want to relocate and contain these victims , how about the facilities at Taunton State Hospital , or. Lakeville , or such that are laying waste. But you have the curveball of daily transportation.This issue is more about location than helping the people. So maybe the powers that be should just expedite the bridge and try to salvage the facility before it really decomposes. Take the hit for the money and do it up right.

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Uhm, did they put all that "granite" back together again during the trip down Centre Street? I mean, it is West Roxbury Crushed Stone--at least when it leaves West Roxbury.

But I'll help you out there with some actual and factual history: the Back Bay fill came from Needham. And the Bunker Hill Monument is Quincy granite.

Unfortunately, none of those actual facts help you out, do they?

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Well , I'll tell you where a good amount of West Roxbury crushed stone went , it went to the old Baker Hot Top plant in JP to be batched and laid out as the streets of Boston.

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Why do you feel that ? What is it about West Roxbury that you don't like ?

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snobs residents of Roxbury and Mattapan. Regarding your claims about increased crime - prove them beyond a reasonable doubt. Then we might listen to you.

And to the City of Boston - Replace the bridge (hint, you don't need 3 to 5 years to do it in either).

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Why don't you volunteer your neighborhood them

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Are you actually making, with a straight face, the claim that the people with poorly-treated or untreated mental illness don't have a higher than average incidence of behavior problems that are at best an annoyance to, and at worst a threat to the safety of, the people whom they encounter? Or that adding a large number of such people to a neighborhood is problematic for the neighbors?

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It took 17 months to build the Empire State Building, 1/1931-5/1932.
But in 2014 it will take five years to repair or replace the bridge across the harbor to Long Island. That is beyond pathetic.

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Well I hope you're the first one to line up to get your picture taken on the other side of that bridge. Certainly, these projects are similar in budget, scope, and impact on the world.

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Does dragging the bridge repair out over four years actually make it any cheaper? I would imagine that the faster you do the job, the less it'll cost, up to a certain point, after which you'd be paying a premium for precision logistics.

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Sorry for such a basic question, but how does one find out about these sorts of meetings? Where are they announced? Is there a city email list or something?

I feel like 75% of the time I hear about neighborhood meetings after the fact. I'd be interested in attending many of them....

thanks for any advice!

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Go to this city page, scroll down for the Neighborhood Early Notification section and sign up for your neighborhood. It's far from complete - they tend to focus on zoning and licensing hearings rather that stuff like this, but that could be useful, too. Check with your city councilor. Some have their own e-mail newsletters.

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Repeatedly on the various Roxbury listservs and facebook groups.

Neighbors have mentioned them too. Talk to your neighbors if you want to know what's going on!

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I posted this on Walsh's facebook page day before yesterday in advance of the meeting, which I could not attend.

An Open Letter to Mayor Walsh about the Radius site in Roxbury

Mayor Walsh,

Tomorrow night the city will be holding a public meeting about the proposal to house the addiction recovery programs that were displaced from Long Island in the recently closed Radius Hospital site in Roxbury. The site is a short walk from my house on Fort Hill, and when we were looking for this house we considered buying one directly next door to the hospital. Although I will not be able to attend, I expect your staff will face a skeptical, if not openly hostile, audience. This is not without reason. We have experience hosting recovering addicts, and it has not been positive.

Just a few hundred yards down Washington Street, there is a collection of sober homes that has been a scourge on the neighborhood for many years. These privately-run homes are profiting on the backs of addicts who need - but do not appear to be receiving - meaningful assistance with their addiction. Instead, the owners of these homes are exploiting both the residents who desperately need real help battling their addictions and the neighbors who must deal with all of the problems that come with a poorly run addiction treatment center - needles, petty crime, prostitution, late night noise, and a constantly changing array of residents who never become neighbors.

As an example of the depth of problems the sober homes have caused, allow me to recount my own experiences while running the public events at Bartlett Yard last year. My team of volunteers cleaning the site found so many used hypodermic needles along Washington Street that I had to ask them to stop cleaning certain areas for their own safety. I was threatened in broad daylight, during an event, with physical harm by a sober home resident who had taken up a second home in one of our buildings so he could get high at his leisure. One of the sober home residents approached me about becoming an artist, but before he could paint his mural he died of an overdose. We had multiple break-ins and the theft of hundreds of dollars of paint and supplies. And I once walked into our locked shop area to find a junkie and a prostitute in coitus - they had broken in through a back door. All this in the span of just a few months.

Given the years of inaction by the city on this issue, your staff should be prepared for a very tough fight to move the recovery program into Radius. Nobody wants to see a revolving door of addicts who leave the recovery home and go down the street to the sober homes, thus making a bad problem that much worse. We have ample reason to be terrified of having the negative experience of the sober homes amplified by an order of magnitude with the proposed recovery center.

On the other hand, I believe that all of us have a duty to help address the city’s homelessness problem and the current situation with the closure of Long Island. Other neighborhoods, including Mattapan and the South End, have already stepped up to do their share. The recent departure of Radius left many people without jobs, and having a boarded up hospital in the middle of our neighborhood is not ideal. And residents are equally concerned about gentrification, so the prospect of having the hospital demolished and turned into yet more cookie cutter luxury condos is nearly as unappealing as that of having to step over junkies on the way to work. Converting the facility to a safe, secure recovery center, with stable jobs for local residents at union wages, could be an answer to a difficult situation. And we know that you have a vested interest in providing real treatment for people suffering from addiction.

Perhaps my words will be lost in the heated discussion that will be held tomorrow night, but I see a way forward. However, this will involve significant commitments from the city.

First, we must have assurances that if an addiction treatment center goes in to Radius, the immediate neighborhood will be able to continue peacefully enjoying its existence as it did before. This means you must deliver a safe, secure facility with constant security that does not impact the current quality of life. No new homeless population camping out nearby. None of the flower salesmen and panhandlers that we see at Melnea Cass and Mass Ave near the methadone clinic. No junkies sleeping in doorways or urinating in gardens. No middle of the night ambulance arrivals or flashing blue police lights. If you cannot guarantee this, then the facility is not suitable for a residential neighborhood in Roxbury or anywhere else.

Second, we desperately need to address the situation with the sober homes. If you are going to be moving 200 addicts into our neighborhood, you need to reciprocate by taking immediate action to close the sober homes that have caused us so many problems over the years. We cannot have addicts leave the recovery center and simply move down the street to sober homes and pick their habits back up again. Nor can we have a situation where the negative impacts of the sober homes near Dudley Square are exacerbated by the recovery center and begin to stretch all the way to Egleston Square. It must be quid pro quo - to get your recovery center you must get rid of the sober homes.

Third, we need assurances that the jobs created at the facility will be jobs with union rates and benefits, and that these jobs will be made available first to Roxbury residents. Finding a contract operator who pays low wages with few benefits is not acceptable.

And finally, we need to talk about the Dearborn School. You cannot seriously be asking us to close and demolish a beloved local school in the same breath that you are asking us to absorb hundreds of recovering addicts. If we take on the burden of this new program and all the risk it entails, let us keep our school.

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A great letter Jason. Maybe offer new jobs to the people who lost theirs when radius closed?

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AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And finally, we need to talk about the Dearborn School. You cannot seriously be asking us to close and demolish a beloved local school in the same breath that you are asking us to absorb hundreds of recovering addicts. If we take on the burden of this new program and all the risk it entails, let us keep our school.

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I hope you receive a response that is as thoughtful as your letter.

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Jason, that is a terrific, well-thought-through letter. It represents a well-informed and nuanced view of the entire picture, is well grounded in reality, and displays a real understanding of the various constituencies whose interests a city government must try to balance. You seem to be the kind of person with whom city governments like to work, and I encourage you to invite the mayor's neighborhood rep for your neighborhood to have a cup of coffee, and otherwise to continue to try to engage the city government.

Best wishes,

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Appreciate the kind words. I work in the federal government, so I have a bit of insight into how things can work. Unfortunately, Boston is terrible at communicating with its citizens about stuff like this and the administration held the meeting before they'd gone out to the community and gathered input. I don't see this project going anywhere after the response they got at that meeting.

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We need more of these well thought out letters like this.

My first opinion of this matter before reading the letter, was that the old Radius Hospital was a great place to do this, but after your clear and concise letter, my opinion has changed. Since I don't live in your neighborhood, I didn't know there was a sober home near Radius that causes so much problems for residents. So I agree let's not burden the community with yet another facility, seems to be that the neighborhood has enough.

However, As someone who has worked in human service (which btw makes me wonder which private organization runs that sober home down the street..), you've brought up a few points that you won't get any traction on from because I know better and how the system works. I just want you be prepared for it.

First off understand that BPHC often 'contracts' these shelters out to companies to run. BPHC actually runs very few of these shelters and sober homes. I believe Long Island and Woods-Mullen are the only two that BPHC truely runs. But the rest are privately run. So for example, the Pine Street Inn is its own non-profit, however they receive contractual money from the BPHC (and probably DPH/DMH/DDS also) to run their shelter. (along with private donations). Now I am not sure if this is the case with Radius because it would replace one of the two BPHC shelters.

Converting the facility to a safe, secure recovery center, with stable jobs for local residents at union wages,

Finding a contract operator who pays low wages with few benefits is not acceptable.

You say "Union Wages" a few times. First off, very few human service workers are unionized, especially ones that are run by private organizations (they pretty much fight unions). Secondly, Human Service people are some of the lowest paid people in the healthcare field, many of these folks starting pay is 10-12/hr, which is not much better than McDonald's. This is because rates are set by the state and the contract guidelines for said programs. In short, you won't find "union rates" anywhere in this field. Sad because its these people who do the most work, and make the most difference in the people they serve's lives, get paid the least.

First, we must have assurances that if an addiction treatment center goes in to Radius.....

While the city says that people will be bused in, I am willing to take a guess that this won't stop people from hanging out who are NOT residents. Or people trying to 'walk up' to the facility if they've missed the bus to the center from the pickup spot. Just so you know!

Second, we desperately need to address the situation with the sober homes.

As much as I feel for you, good luck on this one. It just won't happen. Many of sober programs are funded in a state level (DPH/DMH/DDS), and not a BPHC level. So you should take your beef up with the state about this. It's VERY hard to move/evict these programs due to the nature of the way the contracts with the city work. Plus its up to the state to monitor, and inspect, and cite these centers if they aren't meeting guidelines (and of course I can tell you that this very rarely happens, and often the 'paperwork' to the state is "fudged" to make themselves look good so they don't lose funding)

Then of course, you create another problem too, much like the Long Island Shelter issue, you'll need to find a home for these folks at the Sober home. Then add some costs with build out (remember, it's probably funded via a contract with the DPH/DMH/DDS so the contract would need to be modified), and moving the folks in general. You're talking years.... years before this ever happens. AND now you're talking about moving TWO facilities, Long Island/Radius and now sober homes. It is just not as easy as you think, and your beef may have to be taken up with the state AND the BPHC.

And finally, we need to talk about the Dearborn School.

Not sure what this has to do with Radius, other than your request. It's a public school run by BPS, not a center run BPHC/DMH/DDS/DPH. Two very separate city departments. Not sure how you can try to use this as leverage. And according to BPS's website the school is being rebuilt as a STEM center, so not sure why you think it's going to be gone (unless BPS's website is wrong). But there may be more to this than I know.

---

Finally, again I don't want you to think this reply as an attack, because it's not. I AGREE with you on Radius, but I think your other requests...... you just need to be informed that it's not as clear cut as you may think. There's a lot of nuts and bolts that most don't understand. I'm just trying to help by providing you with more information about said nuts and bolts, that is all.

I wish you the best of luck with your opposition and I support you on this. You've made your case very well.

PS - And fellow former/current Human Service workers on here (i know there are a few on there), feel free to chime if this reply has inaccuracies.

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The city ran the old program, so I was assuming (and still am) that the employees were city workers. I realize that most of these jobs pay terribly, but the jobs at long Island were probably pretty good by industry standards. I want the jobs at the replacement facilities to also be good.

The sober homes on Washington St are privately run, for profit. I don't believe they provide any services or take any state funds directly. Here's a good story about them from 2010. Sadly, not much has changed. http://www.dotnews.com/2010/special-report-sober-homes-issues-safety-ins...

The city has a variety of options, from passing ordinances to stepping up ISD inspections to having a dedicated 24 hour police presence on site to taking the properties by eminent domain and operating then as properly managed facilities.

And no, the Dearborn School is not related to this proposal. But the Mayor is not doing so well in Roxbury with his administration's incredibly unpopular twin proposals. He's going to have to drop at least one of them, if not both. If he wants to have a shot at this Radius plan, he had better toss us a bone.

But it's probably too late for that, as he had the meeting without first talking to residents. I'd say both proposals are now dead. He's dug himself a pretty big hole in Roxbury, a neighborhood he won handily just last year. He's gonna have a tough time getting anyone to trust him again after this debacle.

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Thanks for the reply Jason. I didn't want you to think I was attacking you. I'm trying to help you understand how this works so you can fix your neighborhood problems.

And yes if you don't ask, you don't know. But sometimes you need to understand and be realistic also and understand how broken the system is in order to get things done. And trust me, the system is very broken. This is why I no longer work in Human Service. After three years of see what really seeing goes on at these programs, how the state treats people (financially), and how poorly many programs can be run, I left. It's very sad how bad many of these people are treated by these programs, when they really need our help and aren't really getting it.

The city ran the old program, so I was assuming (and still am) that the employees were city workers. I realize that most of these jobs pay terribly, but the jobs at long Island were probably pretty good by industry standards. I want the jobs at the replacement facilities to also be good.

Yeah but just because they were city employees doesn't mean they were paid very well. Or that they were unionized at all. Even if they were paid 15/hr (which I doubt that), that's still on the low end scale for health services workers. There's just no money in public human service, which is why people don't get paid very well. Now if this was a private facility, workers would be paid far more. But I can't imagine BPHC paying these folks very well. (except maybe true medical staff.. nurses, doctors, etc)

The sober homes on Washington St are privately run, for profit. I don't believe they provide any services or take any state funds directly. Here's a good story about them from 2010. Sadly, not much has changed.

Thanks for the story. Interesting. Never heard of a group called "Sober Homes", I was expecting it to be a Vinfen or North Suffolk style non-profit program. And for profit human service.. ugh ugh. Yeah no wonder you guys have, because all they see are dollar signs when paitents come.

They may still get money from the state for providing services. Lemme explain why and how you get into these programs and how the funding works. It isn't dependent on private or public or non-profit company, it's all the same.

I'm going to guess that since this program has such issues, it isn't like the Betty Ford Clinic, where you can walk up and say "I have a drug problem, I need help, here's my insurance card". Because if it was one of these style rehab facilties, I doubt you would have as many problems as you would too. Private facilities where the primary source of income is private insurance or POS paitents, are typically run far better because of the influx of money. Private facilities can charge more since its private insurance or POS, while as ones that accept patients referred to them from the state have fixed amounts on what they can charge to the state (its usually not much).

Essentially to get into these programs you need to be referred to by a state social worker. How do you get to this point? You either have to be homeless, have been told to go into treatment (per a court order, due to legal issues), or generally are poor/low income (usually MassHealth or Medicare, Commonwealth Care recipients). Once you've been deemed that you need treatment, you basically become a walking dollar amount for a facility. Your dollar amount moves with you, so it becomes a big lottery on which program you get assigned to. There's big money in getting these contracts with people, as it is a continuous source of money. Unlike private facilities (i.e. Betty Ford) where you must get approval from insurance carriers for length of treatment, amount charged, etc etc, ones referred to by the state are pretty opened ended in terms of payment and length since the it's the state's dime. (well not so much opened ended but the states guidelines and rates are far different than it would be from private insurance carriers. And sadly the state has far less oversight than a private insurance carrier would do (they do so much more to ensure their money is being spent properly at these facilities)

This poses a problem. Why? Because unlike places like Betty Ford, where you are paying for a service (or your insurance is) and expect a good outcome, places like Sober Homes do not. They have no incentive for upping the ante on care to provide a better service. They probably just barely meeting state requirements and fudge documents to make their "outcomes" look good to the state so they don't lose the contracts. But essentially the money keeps on rolling in whether the treatment is working or not. Unlike Betty Ford, these facilities have no incentive to run a better facility to 'attract' new patients because the facility will continually get new patients with no effort of their own since they are just assigned people from the state with a blob of money.

This results in very poorly run facilities because people don't care about the people they are treating, which then results in issues like you have.

So I can safely assume that most of the patients at Sober Homes have been referred there by the state due to the problems you have in your neighborhood and their client base. And even if I am totally wrong, even private facilities that are run in this state (even if they do not take clients refered to them from the state) are still inspected and managed by DPH/DMH, and still have state-required levels of care that must be met.

What can you do?

I suggest contact DPH (Boston PHC, and MA DPH) and MA DMH to see if such funding heads to these programs. Then once you do that, start filing complaints. Get your neighbors to do so also. Because what you described in your original post, states that the "outcomes" from said organization are being fudged... essentially lied to.. to the state to keep the money flowing in. This should not happen at all.

You would be better off trying to get the sources of their income cut off, because once the sources dry up, the facility will close. This is probably the easiest way.

I'd also try.. as you suggested.. trying to get inspections done. But like above, they need to be done by DMH/DPH, not ISD. ISD can only cite them if there are over crowding, sanitary, or fire hazard issues. They can't do much about the way the facility is run or the vagrant issue your neighborhood has.

taking the properties by eminent domain and operating then as properly managed facilities.

This is an extreme measure which would never happen. Politicians don't like to take things using eminent domain, as it just sets a bad precedent. HOWEVER, what they can do, much like my comment above about contacting DPH/DMH, is re-assign all the contracts to a new company. This means the new company will get the patients, buildings, employees, and everything in between and transfer them from Sober Homes to a new company. This actually happens a lot. (happed alot at my last job when we 'took over' a few new programs that came from places like North Suffolk or Vinfen).

Yes the facility may not close, but it may be better run. OR the new company see so many problems and see that closing, then folding patients into existing services the new company has may be a better fit (this happens also).

But it's probably too late for that, as he had the meeting without first talking to residents. I'd say both proposals are now dead. He's dug himself a pretty big hole in Roxbury, a neighborhood he won handily just last year. He's gonna have a tough time getting anyone to trust him again after this debacle.

I agree, however I don't believe your battle is done with Sober Homes at least. Radius, to a degree yes however you can continue to make a stink about it and maybe they may listen. But as far as Sober Homes is concerned, use what I said above to try a different stradegy to get the attention of state officials to get them to re-look at the care at Sober Homes.

Mayor Walsh really isn't winning any new friends these days in general. Between this, the Olympics and a few other issues, he really isn't doing a very good job. Oh well. One term mayor I guess.

Jason I wish you the best of luck in your fight. I am going to make a few calls to see if I can find out more information about Sober Homes for you, and see if I can find someone at DMH/DPH to listen to your communities complaints and maybe have some spot inspections done. Not sure if I can, as it's been a few years (lots of turn over in these agencies at that level so my contacts may no longer be there).

Anyhow best of luck. Feel free to use the email function of Uhub to contact me privately if you'd like to take this offline. I'm really trying to help you.

PS - To anyone who is reading these thread and going "wow that's really fucked up how that works". You are mighty correct on that one. There's so much red tape in human service, it's not funny. So much deceit, lying, faking, fraud, and inadequacies in these agencies it isn't funny. This is why I left human service. Sad because its these people that need the help the most, and just aren't getting it due to companies like Sober Homes who are more concerned about making outcomes look good to the state to keep the money flowing in, rather than providing a good, clean, and safe service to people who need it the most.

PS - Please excuse the typo or grammar errors in this, if any. I wrote this without finishing my first cup of coffee.

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The programs on Long Island were run by BPHC and Bay Cove. While they weren't perfect programs, they were run by accredited agencies and staffed by paraprofessionals supervised by licensed professionals including nurses, social workers, psychologists, etc.

The sober houses are not licensed or regulated in any way. They are run by individuals who have gotten sober and want to help others do so, which is admirable, but they are not staffed by licensed folks and do not have enforceable contracts around guests, substance use, etc.

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Hi Jason, the community organizers who turned out neighbors against the Radius proposal are continuing to meet, even with the City withdrawing the proposal. We'd like to link up.

Jed

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Rox, Dor, Matt have enough problems to deal with. Let the State find another dumping ground. Glad to read the community is standing against the proposal.

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JUST CAN'T SAY THIS ENOUGH!

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want a public housing project in their neighborhood if they could avoid it? I say Boston asks Cambridge to take some of our public housing overflow off it's hands, maybe Cambridge could also take some METCO students, but not the way they usually do, when they are very choosy and picky. Actually, come to think of it, Brookline could take more unwashed Boston METCO kids, maybe build a real project, like Heath St or Bunker Hill. Maybe the immediate Boston area (Brookline, Csmbridge, Somerville, Newton, etc) should have a combined school district, with kids bused all over from inner city Boston to Brookline High, Rindge and Latin, etc. and assign white Brookline, Newton, Cambridge, etc. kids to inner city Boston schools. This would help facilitate greater racial diversity in the immediate Boston area in places Brookline, Newton, Cambridge to the high levels that currently exist in the City of Boston. Lets be honest, Boston may be 50% white, but Brookline, Newton, and Cambridge are far more white and should have as a goal reaching the same level of diversity as Boston. Might not even be a bad idea to consolidate Boston, Cambridge, Brookline, Newton, etc. into one big amalgamated city and single county.

Hey, a guy can dream, can't he?

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Rather than bussing, we should just have a municipal consolidation where pretty much every town or city over 25,000 inside the 128 belt is annexed by the city and brought to its standards for everything.

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God forbid....but if you were the brother or sister of one of the folks displaced from Long Island? or their child, or parent.....what would you think then? Fear not! You're fearing the unknown. If change didn't ever come about, where would you be, infancy stage still I suspect. These people breath in and out just like you do. They want and hope, just like you do. They are down on their luck, perhaps addiction from coping with nothing else that they think could come good to them. As far as low income housing, we desperately need more of it in this city, as we've grown to having more homeless than NYC. (they were still homeless out on the island...now they're on the mainland). Offer people hope, and opportunity and they will succeed. For those in need of treatment facilities, that needs to happen...you are mixing apples and oranges. They are all homeless, but those in need of treatment, treatment first so to better have the opportunity once housed. It is the rent having been lifted to whatever the landlord chooses to charge that's drive the homeless numbers up. Yes folks come in from other locations, have for more than 20 yrs I've been trying to house people in Boston. That's not the issue. Treatment, opportunities to grow, housing that is affordable. The section 8 from BHA no longer covers the rent for a one bedroom in the city of Boston. It's against the law to supplement the person's rent over the subsidy to pay for the rent. We have a dilemma. Instead of playing burbs backyards where are "they" going, help to resolve the problem, not stifle it further. Did someone give you a start ever in your life? Did you ever have difficulties managing an issue in your life and needed help? Who was there for you? Take this down a notch and dig in and help.

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I am appalled at how the section for Roxbury on this site contains as far as one may -see virtually nothing but crime news. After a while someone who does not know Roxbury shall either unconsciously or consciously denigrate all of the peoples of Roxbury their many shades of humanity that have existed here for many years. The truth is that we are a great and diverse section of the city (not a neighborhood). So, please be aware of what and where you are posting. I am a native born black Bostonian or colored as my birth certificate says. Cut out the stereotyping and racist attitudes towards us.

If you have not, look at history. Government policies and racist behaviors towards people of color in this great city are why things are the way that they are today. Also, look at to whom flow the advantages to everything that benefits human life. It, in most cases, comes out one sided. But many of us have endured, confronted and conquered our challenges and shall continue to do so! As will our children and our future generations.

We are here to stay and demand fair treatment everywhere.
To all you no-it-all newcomers, I say welcome. Many of you shall become the displaced urban masses of the cloudy future because the ne hip culture is shallow and ultimately non-productive. many of you bright cyberborgs shall be replaced by machines and the neighborhood overrun by rich immigrants escaping shooting wars back home.

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You'll see a preponderance of crime stuff, too (believe me, there's a Dorchester resident who is constantly e-mailing me about that).

It's a result of a couple of things: One is I want to try to answer the "why did five cruisers just bomb down my street?" question. Another is that I want to try to cover stuff the mainstream media doesn't. And a lot of that is crime. MSM has gotten better over the past few years in covering crime in Boston, but there's still stuff they miss.

Ideally, yes, I should be covering other stuff, both hard news (I've really only written one longish piece about the Dearborn) and feature-ish stuff (such as this). But I could say that about every Boston neighborhood (except maybe Roslindale, because, I admit it, I live there). Maybe one of these days I'll figure out how to make enough to hire another reporter.

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... THEY NEED SOMEWHERE TO GO! There are plenty of abandon buildings throughout the city.... Here's a few that the can go in and make it a stable Enviorment these people can depend on!
Dudley St. And Wendover... There's a empty storage building that can be used.... Over by Heath Street Projects--- there is a whole strip of abandon buildings..... Cummings Highway across the street from Lopez Funeral home....Another empty building for years.... These Abandon and condemned houses and buildings.... Come on now... There is places they just have to use they head and start planning right....

One thing is MENINO would have had a back up plan way before they closed the bridge--- STOP and think of

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Menino caused this issue by punting on bridge maintenance for the 20 years he was in power. Don't lay this at Walsh's feet because Tommy couldn't be bothered to make a tough decision.

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