The Mass and Cass Engagement Center will shut till subsequent week after a swell of violence in and round it, with the town saying “public safety necessitates” the closure.
“Our approach to the crises centered in the area known as Mass and Cass have always been centered on public health and safety,” a spokesman for Mayor Michelle Wu mentioned in a press release Wednesday evening.
“Right now, public safety necessitates that we shut down Atkinson Street, including the Engagement Center, for a few days. Outreach teams will continue to work in the area to provide services to those that need them. We will continue to offer transportation to daytime service centers in Boston,” the spokesman added.
Atkinson is the guts of the world often called Mass and Cass or Methadone Mile, the place open-air drug dealing and use predominate. Though the Wu administration cleared away the hundreds-strong tent metropolis that sprung up across the space over the previous yr, the inhabitants on the streets seems to have swelled again up, notably on Atkinson and particularly across the Engagement Center, which simply opened up just a few months in the past in an effort to attach the individuals within the space battling dependancy and mental-health points with providers.
Staff was informed that the middle can be closed till Monday or Tuesday as Boston Police shut down Atkinson for just a few days of police work and “decongestion.”
Just this week, two completely different individuals have been stabbed within the shelter, with three extra taking place within the surrounding blocks over three days. One man was arrested in one of many incidents, and nobody was killed.
“This is just a preview for what we will begin to see as the weather changes and gets warmer,” mentioned Steve Fox of the South End Forum neighborhood group. “It’s time for us to reevaluate the effectiveness and purpose of the engagement center. Right now it’s more of a clubhouse for the kinds of deals that are going down within the Mass and Cass area as well as the violence that we’re seeing.”
This non permanent closure has echoes of the previous “comfort station” there that authorities needed to pull the plug on final yr as a result of it turned too harmful to function.
One Boston Public Health Commission worker informed the Herald that “some staffers are scared to come to work” within the Engagement Center given the circumstances there.
“You never know what’s going to happen,” mentioned the worker. “Knives, hammers, machetes — they have all that in their bags.”
He additionally mentioned “drug dealers hang out in the Engagement Center” to take a load off and scope out what’s happening, after which they make gross sales and ship addicts off to fulfill up with runners.
Neal O’Brien of SEIU 888, which represents the Engagement Center employees, mentioned “Employees are worried to go to work because some of them feel threatened” — and they’re frightened to talk up due to retribution at work, he mentioned.
The Mass and Cass space, within the South End or Newmarket a part of Boston, has struggled for years. Particularly after the restoration providers on Boston’s Long Island closed and homeless shelters and methadone clinics centralized within the outdated industrial space, individuals from all around the area have congregated there to promote, purchase and do medication and stay on the streets.
The space reached presumably an all-time low final yr when a number of individuals have been killed there and a blocks-long tent metropolis flourished. Wu’s administration cleared away the tents, however issues stay.
The matter of public security at Mass and Cass will likely be a focal point within the present Suffolk District Attorney race. DA Kevin Hayden’s workplace mentioned in a press release that he’s “keenly aware of the numerous problems associated with the Mass and Cass area and we’re working with all of our law enforcement partners to address the area’s many challenges.”
“We’ll continue to prosecute whenever warranted, such as in cases of violence or exploitation, but many of the issues associated with Mass and Cass will not be solved in courtrooms,” Hayden’s workplace mentioned.
City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo, who’s working for DA and beforehand opposed efforts to oust the tent metropolis that developed within the space final yr, didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”