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Boston vows to clear Mass and Cass of tents by Jan. 12; get their residents into housing and care

Temporary shelters under construction at Shattuck Hospital

Temporary shelters being installed yesterday at Shattuck Hospital. Photo by thebostonlol.

Mayor Wu today announced a plan to get everybody now living in tents in the Mass and Cass area connected with "appropriate services" by Jan. 12, after which the city will "ensure the area remains clear of encampments."

In a statement, the mayor's office said public-health officials have found "dozens of low-threshold supportive housing placements" that are either available now or will be by that deadline, including at the Roundhouse Hotel right at Mass and Cass, which will have room for up to 60 people, along with 24/7 staff and case management, and temporary housing structures now being installed on the grounds of Shattuck Hospital off Morton Street on the Jamaica Plain/Mattapan line, which will have room for 30 men - with access to medical care and case managers.

Once the tents are gone, "the city will maintain an ongoing presence, including outreach and street cleaning so that further encampments do not develop."

In the statement, Wu said:

With these actions, our goal is to bring residents out of the cold and into supportive housing, to change the status quo in this area and citywide. Our team is taking every possible action to alleviate the humanitarian crisis at Mass Ave and Melnea Cass Boulevard and keep this area clear of encampments moving forward.

Boston homeless encampment protocol.

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Comments

And so it begins--the relocation of the homeless problem from the South End to Forest Hills. The new plaza and park areas were nice while they lasted!

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Would you prefer people moved there in tents?

As for "new park", that land is still state owned Shattuck land, yes?

Not like the area lacks for parkland anyway. Maybe these should be set up on the street in city-owned parking spaces?

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Sacklerville will have a hard time surviving winter. Even OxyContin, heroin and cigarettes aren’t enough to keep blood moving in but the hardiest.

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Someone is going to find a way to be pissed off about this

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But my first thought was "oh shit is the Franklin Park wilderness gonna be full of junkies and discarded needles this winter?" But then I thought, "even if it is, I need to take this classist, NIMBY thinking and shove it".

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It's not that bad of a thought. the objective shouldn't be just to move the junkies to franklin park and say thats that. If they want to be in the "housing" in frankling park they should be required to get clean through addiction services provided through the city.

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You saved me a bunch of time explaining why the "you have to earn basic human dignity and not freezing to death by MY rules" doesn't have any basis in anything but "I wanna feel special".

Just like drug testing people on welfare predictably turned out to be an enormously expensive boondoggle based only on BUT MY FEELS and massive grifting by connected friends.

Once again, folks: Drugs won the War on Drugs. Time for some new strategies, particularly when this strategy is evidence-based.

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for 20+ years. Where have you been?

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…that first thing you said.

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It’s not classist to want parks to be free of needles.

Why is this burden falling on Bostonians when the majority of these people are not from Boston? I’m tired of suburbanites dropping their problems on us.

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… longer than those complaining about them.
Just because you lost your home and live rough doesn’t make you less of a Bostonian. Just because you can’t pay the rents for your home that the absentee landlord who bought it or inherited it or won in foreclosure doesn’t make you less of a Bostonian.
Cities are historically where the displaced seek a better life. Boston is the state capital. But it’s full of people with the I got mine so fuck everyone else mindset and who would love to turn their city into a Disney movie set. Suburbanites don’t have a monopoly on that.

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They wouldn't be suburbanites. Not that we should strive to imitate Jacksonville, Florida, just pointing out the folly of borders. The natural world is the only truth.

This is a terrific idea: Get them into houses that aren't near a density of schmucks, and after you treat them, you still have shelter that can be rented to anyone else for cheap.

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and in a critical mass. What productive effort would it be send a handful to Revere, a few to Cambridge, a couple to Salem, one or two to Milton and Wareham and Wilbraham (all of these just randomly picked) when we have them all here in this one city, largely in one small area and can work set up the infrastructure to support the services needed to help them?

I am unaware of any community actively "dropping" individuals into the city, these folks ended up here one way or another but it's not like the City of Somerville (again just a randomly chosen place that came to mind quick) drove around in a van snatching people who appeared to be addicted to drugs and shoving them out on Southampton Street.

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The state.

The STATE is paying for this. All of it.

From the earlier link:

In e-mail to advocates, Sudders said the state is buying "18 private lockable sleeping cabins, each with one or two beds, personal climate control and storage for possessions" from a company called Pallet - which says the units can be set up in as little as an hour. And:

"The state will also contract with a local health and human service provider to provide immediate onsite services, such as meals, laundry, case management and mental health and addiction services, with the goal of supporting residents in their transition from the streets to permanent housing and longer-term stability. The provider will also be responsible for general oversight of the community, including 24/7 security, as the safety of the residents as well as hospital staff, patients and the surrounding neighborhoods is paramount. The housing is expected to be operational in December."

Time for you to dial it down a notch, dude. At least get your facts straight.

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So it will disturb him while he walks his golden doodle through 'his' park.

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As well as the kind of people you don’t want to see.
If the addicts have homes and services instead of open space and aimless care, you may see fewer needles. Just like the housed addicts of your class keep their own needles and wine bottles out of your sight.
Then you can go back to hating dogs.

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To want these people to stay away from your upper middle class paradise, preferring them to stay in a very working class part of Boston is classist.

That’s kind of the definition of being classist.

Now, my wanting Senator Brownsberger’s planned heroin injection site to be in the town where Senator Brownsberger lives (Belmont) as opposed to being down in the Methadone Mile might also be classist, but I will accept the charge.

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Mayor Wu didn't create this situation but she sure owns it now. I hope this works out.

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Wu IS owning it.

Unlike a certain guy who probably thought they should have been sleeping in their cars.

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As a temporary solution I'm in support of the attempt.

That said, having read many of Swirls' (et al.) posts over the last year, what do you propose to do with any of these folks who may refuse to be vaccinated? Put them on the first bus to Jacksonville?

Just wondering.

I'd suggest keeping them and make vaccine education a part of the case management. But, if they still refuse?

By the way, the plan includes housing them in the Roundhouse Hotel and EnVision hotel. This isn't just the Shattuck temporary shelters. Does that change your answer?

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This has been a special population of concern for vaccinations since the get go. There has been outreach, mobile clinics, the works. If they spent any time at all in a shelter, it is a good bet they have had at least one dose.

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I’m concerned about your stress levels.
Cortisol and the likes, as you seem to froth about everything little thing on this board whereupon folks don’t think similarly or agree with you. The idea that these cloddish dimwits don’t see your lofty and righteous perspective seems to be part of the neurosis…

NIMBY’s have always gotten tons of crap here (understandably so) but I think SWIRL has become another “type” of person folks think of when they think of Boston—it’s like a brighter shade of Karen, whose root inflammation is not that she’s a Trump type but that she’s educated and as such, she just knows (facts here folks, FACTS) that’s she’s smarter than everyone.

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My god, what an ass you are!
Take your misogyny, your anti-intellectualism and your labels and stuff it.

I think Swirly Girl can handle herself just fine.

That she doesn’t hesitate to identify her gender is admirable. But for a self identifying “wizard” like yourself, it’s a flag for abuse.

I’ve disagreed with her many times and been duly castigated. And vice versa.
When she’s wrong, she’s very very wrong but when she’s right she’s brilliant.

Your phony concern is slimy.

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whose root inflammation is not that she’s a Trump type but that she’s educated and as such, she just knows (facts here folks, FACTS) that’s she’s smarter than everyone.

that people will spend time to write paragraphs like this, all the while unwittingly telling the world how insecure they are about their own intelligence

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So you decide to ignore the question rather than deal with a challenging answer. "Many" have been vaccinated so therefore there is no problem, move on.

I disagree with your assumption that many have been vaccinated, though I won't request a citation. I'd rather you consider your absolutist vaccine mandates.

BTW, I have had Covid, am vaccinated and boosted, so don't lump me in with the RFK Jr.'ers.

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Everyone: they need to do something about Mass/Cass
-city does something-
Everyone: OH HELL NO.

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Everyone: THEY NEED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT MASS/CASS

Rinse and repeat.

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A social group I meet with the other night unanimously said the same exact words.
Right after some claimed institutionalization worked back before “these poor schizos were thrown into the streets” and others remarked, “It’s suspicious that so many Chinese are waiting in lines at food pantries near Chinatown” (this last observation while we sipped champagne and ate delectables in a multi million dollar Boston home that less than 10 years ago housed a working class family that had fallen apart and could no longer afford it).

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