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To handle Mass. and Cass, city councilors say other communities need to ‘step up’
Some officials are pushing for the creation of a pooled fund where neighboring municipalities would help Boston pay for recovery services.
For years, overlapping crises of homelessness, addiction, and mental health have coalesced near the area of Boston known as Mass. and Cass, stretching the city’s resources. Now, members of Boston City Council are saying nearby communities need to “step up” in helping Boston manage the situation.
Councilor John FitzGerald is leading the charge for the creation of an “intermunicipal fund” that would require Boston and nearby communities to pool money in an effort to fund “coordinated, long-term solutions” at and around the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard.
FitzGerald introduced the hearing order during Wednesday’s City Council meeting, where it received widespread support from his colleagues. The order was referred to the Committee on Public Health, Homelessness, and Recovery, which FitzGerald chairs. A hearing will be scheduled in the future for councilors to examine the idea in detail and ask questions of relevant officials and experts.
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Boston has been forced to shoulder the burden of Mass. and Cass alone for too long, FitzGerald said.
“We have a concentration of services, the majority in a singular city neighborhood, that other cities and towns get to dump their issues on, and at no cost to them,” he said.
In 2014, safety concerns prompted Boston to close the Long Island Bridge, which connected the mainland to an addiction recovery campus on the island in Boston Harbor. The Long Island recovery campus currently sits dilapidated and unused, and the city is working to eventually rebuild the bridge and resurrect the recovery campus.
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Many point to the closure of the Long Island campus as the origin of the ongoing situation at Mass. and Cass, where open-air drug dealing has flourished and tent encampments have been erected and cleared repeatedly.
Mayor Michelle Wu oversaw a major tent-clearing effort in 2023, empowering police to take down any temporary structures while working with those living at the encampment to find more suitable housing. Despite the initial success of that plan, spillover effects are now apparent throughout the city. Residents, especially in neighborhoods like downtown and the South End, consistently voice concerns over increases in used needles, human waste, and more.
“What we’re doing now isn’t working,” Councilor Erin Murphy said. “It continues to worsen. My neighbors, my constituents, and local service providers say so. They continue to say that it’s the worst they’ve ever seen.”
The Wu administration acknowledges that “congregate drug use” has spread, and says it is doing everything possible to improve conditions.
Wu addressed the topic Wednesday during an appearance on GBH’s “Boston Public Radio.” Data shows that the number of people gathering outside to engage in these activities is lower now than it was in recent years, Wu said, and that Boston no longer has any major tent encampments. But more still needs to be done, she added.
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“We still have a challenge of outdoor congregate substance use. And as we have tackled the larger problem, we have seen the challenges get worse in small, targeted areas in the city,” she said.
Boston needs help, FitzGerald and others say, especially because “a substantial percentage” of people receiving services in and around Mass. and Cass come there from municipalities outside Boston.
“Despite this regional reality, Boston has disproportionately borne the burden of crisis response — financially, operationally and politically — while many surrounding municipalities benefit from Boston’s services without contributing to their sustainability,” the hearing order reads.
FitzGerald cited other precedents for regional cost-sharing, naming assessments for the MBTA, emergency preparedness, and environmental impact mitigation as examples that prove the feasibility of the idea.
FitzGerald’s hearing order lacks concrete details on how such a plan might work, including any estimates on the funds other communities may be asked to provide. During the meeting, he stressed that this is only the “beginning of the conversation.”
Members of the Wu administration will likely be asked to testify at the hearing, alongside regional municipal leaders, public health and housing advocates, and representatives from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and the Massachusetts Municipal Association.
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When reached for comment Thursday, a city spokesperson indicated that the idea of a pooled fund is something the Wu administration would be open to.
“The City will continue to advocate for and welcome all state partnership and resources to address a regional challenge concentrated in Boston,” they said in a statement.
“The State’s investment of temporary resources in previous years was critical to the real progress in ending encampments in Boston, building clear pathways to recovery and stable housing, and coordinating public safety and public health responses,” the city spokesperson added. “More is needed, and we continue to work alongside residents and advocates to urge partnership for a regional public health recovery campus and decentralized treatment sites that will meet the scale of the challenge.”
Multiple councilors added their names to FitzGerald’s hearing order, indicating their support and characterizing the problem as a regional one, not limited to Boston’s borders.
Of course, many hurdles remain and it is unclear which communities could be asked to contribute and what their appetite is for such a proposal.
“Politically this may be difficult, but morally we can all agree it is the right thing to do,” FitzGerald said.
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