Boston Council Hears Mass and Cass Spillover Has Spread Across the City

BOSTON -- October 22, 2024, Boston City Council scrutinizes Mass and Cass crisis as drug activity spreads citywide. The Committee on Public Safety and Criminal Justice, chaired by Councillor at Large Henry Santana with lead sponsor District 2 Councillor Edward M. Flynn, heard Tuesday from city health officials, police, nonprofits, and residents on Docket No. 1205, one year after the Atkinson Street encampment was cleared. Dr. Bisola Ojikutu of the Boston Public Health Commission reported a 33 percent drop in citywide overdoses for January through April 2024, with reductions of more than 50 percent among Black and Latino residents, while Deputy Superintendent Dan Humphries said violent crime in the Mass and Cass area is down 27 percent with no new officer deployments, only added coordination. Edens Vice President Ryan Leeming testified that his company has increased annual operating costs at South Bay Shopping Center by millions of dollars on security and has discussed pausing further capital investment. New Market BID Executive Director Sue Sullivan said needle pickups across surrounding neighborhoods have fallen nearly 50 percent since late August. Gavin Foundation CEO Peter Barbuto, himself in long-term recovery, called Section 35 civil commitment "a very successful intervention" serving more than 10,000 people statewide in 2024, while advocate Cassie Hurd of the Material Aid and Advocacy Program countered that forced movement and criminalization are making conditions more dangerous for unhoused people, not less.