A majority of the Boston City Council expressed concerns or outright opposition to the mayor’s proposed anti-encampment ordinance for Mass and Cass during a Thursday hearing, placing Michelle Wu’s plan for the troubled area in jeopardy.
While most councilors agreed that the tents should be taken down, the opposition ranged from doubts about whether an ordinance to remove them was necessary to the legalities of a measure some felt criminalizes homelessness to skepticism about an approach that was characterized as putting housing before treatment.
Only two councilors, Sharon Durkan and Ruthzee Louijeune, indicated that they would be voting in favor of the ordinance, which would give police the authority to remove tents and tarps on Methadone Mile, provided that individuals are offered housing and transportation to services.
“I don’t feel like there’s any evidence that this is actually helping in the same way in which I believe other programs and other efforts that you have led in a very specific way,” City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo, who chaired the day’s committee hearing, told a panel of Wu administration officials.
“My concern is that unlike other things that we can afford to get wrong, if you get this wrong, more people die. More people are harmed. That’s a very different consequence. You don’t get to unroll that,” Arroyo added.
Arroyo was among the three councilors who expressed outright opposition to the mayor’s anti-encampment ordinance, which Wu proposed in late August as part of her three-pronged plan for tackling increased crime in the Mass and Cass zone.
He, Frank Baker and Kendra Lara all stated that police already have that authority, and an ordinance is, thus, not necessary. The three differ, however, in other aspects of their disapproval, which, in the case of Baker, hinges more on the shelter and housing component of the mayor’s plan.
“I believe in my heart of hearts we’re going down the wrong path,” Baker said, adding that the focus should be on getting people into treatment, rather than trying to set them up in housing, where addicts will continue to use drugs.
“We don’t need this ordinance,” he said. “This ordinance is a way for this administration to try to spread blame across this body right here. If my voice were listened to in this conversation, I wouldn’t mind taking some of the blame, but my voice isn’t being listened to.”
Arroyo and Lara were more concerned with the legalities of the ordinance. Arroyo pointed to constitutional challenges other large cities have faced when trying to clear out homeless encampments, saying there’s “no evidence” similar laws have worked in other parts of the country.
Tania Del Rio, the city’s Mass and Cass coordinator, disputed this, saying what Boston is trying to do is innovative and thus, isn’t comparable to what’s been implemented in other cities.
The other two parts of the mayor’s plan, a new 30-bed shelter in the South End to temporarily house individuals displaced by the ordinance and an increased police presence, do not require City Council approval.
They are somewhat intertwined, however, meaning that a vote against the anti-encampment ordinance may put a damper on the entire approach.
For example, more police would be deployed to enforce the ban, prevent encampments from reoccurring in other locations and restore Atkinson Street to a tent-free public way.
Further, the new shelter would open only after the ordinance is passed, and enforcement begins. It would shut down after the individuals occupying the 30 beds are connected with permanent and low-threshold housing, Wu has said.
This part of the plan has been particularly controversial, with some dubbing it a “fourth shelter” in the South End.
City Council President Ed Flynn, who represents the area, raised concerns about the shelter on Thursday but spoke favorably of other parts of the plan, saying that the tents should come down “immediately.”
“There can’t any longer be a climate in Boston where anything goes,” Flynn said. “People have to follow the rules and if you don’t follow the rules, there has to be consequences for that.”
Louijeune spoke favorably of the plan as well, saying, “I think this ordinance provides an opportunity to get people out of inhumane situations and at the same time, when we read language, a bed that is practically available.”
Police Commissioner Michael Cox said the ordinance would remove the 48-hour notice his officers are required to give before removing tents and tarps, which creates a “whack-a-mole” effect, where the encampments pop up in other locations.
The intent of the ordinance, Cox said, is to separate the people in need of shelter and services from the criminals coming to the area to engage in its open-air drug market and prey on the vulnerable.
There was a significant uptick in crime in the Mass and Cass zone in July and August, compared to that time period last year, he said.
While the intersection only accounts for 2.5% of the city’s land area, it comprises 8% of violent crime reports, 5% of property crime reports, and 6% of arrests, Cox said.
