Attorney General Maura Healey has joined the dialog over the humanitarian disaster plaguing Boston’s Mass and Cass amid current friction between the Mayor and the Baker administration.
“Obviously it’s something that requires partnership between the city and the state. So I would be interested in hearing from the mayor what exactly is needed in terms of additional resources,” Healey mentioned Thursday.
Healey was showing on WGBH’s Boston Public Radio when hosts Margery Eagan and Jim Braude requested the Democratic gubernatorial hopeful the place she stood in a creating spat between Mayor Michelle Wu and Gov. Charlie Baker, after the mayor not too long ago mentioned that the town’s residents “really need the state to step up.”
Baker, via his Health and Human Services Secretary, Marylou Sudders, mentioned the state has stepped up, with greater than $40 million in direct help and $20 million extra ready to go away the Legislature.
“The Baker-Polito Administration has provided and continues to provide leadership and ongoing support to the City of Boston’s efforts to address the humanitarian crisis at Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue,” Sudders wrote Wu in a Wednesday letter.
Healey mentioned Thursday she acknowledges the state’s funding towards an answer but in addition sees the issues dealing with the town.
“I think the state has provided significant resources, the city has provided significant resources. So, you know, I think what needs to happen is just continued open dialogue about how we get to a scenario where we have taken care of those who are there but also stop the flow of people coming into the area,” she mentioned.
Baker additionally appeared on WGBH Thursday, when the governor defined why Sudders despatched the letter.
“The first time (Wu) said she was looking for a partner, I kind of ignored it. I actually thought it must have been a mistake or something,” he mentioned. “The second time she said it, on a radio program a couple days later, I said to (Sudders), ‘you’re still talking to these guys, aren’t you’ and she said ‘yeah, they eliminated the meeting we used to have on a pretty regular basis.’”
Baker mentioned he instructed Sudders to level out precisely what the state had executed to handle Mass and Cass and the place the issue actually lies.
“At some point the city has got to deal with those drug dealers that just hang around down there and prey on people,” he mentioned.
“I just wanted to set the record straight,” Baker mentioned, audibly indignant. “Because I have a Legislature that gave me $40 million to spend on this stuff…and we did.”
Wu, in a response Thursday, mentioned “no one is doing enough.”
“The City and the state have both invested significant time and money, but the individuals on our waitlist need us to take shared ownership of the regional and statewide challenge that exists today,” she mentioned.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”