Boston city workers began to clear tents Monday morning near the troubled intersection of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue as part of an effort to enforce a new encampment ban across the city.
Monday marked the beginning of a three-day clearing. Outreach workers, police officers and city employees are working to take down the more than 75 tents, place personal items in storage and move some 90 people in the area into shelters.
The effort was received with concern from some people who have been living in an encampment on Atkinson Street near the intersection known as Mass. and Cass, marked by a longtime concentration of homelessness and substance use.
Danielle, a 39-year-old woman who has lived in a tent on the street for six months, says she walked away from her belongings to go to a nearby McDonald’s for a few minutes and returned to find them gone. She said she was confused because she had been told earlier by police and city workers that Wednesday was the deadline to clear her things.
“I’m literally left with the clothes on my back,” said Danielle, who asked not to use her full name to protect her privacy. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Danielle sobbed as city workers explained that her tent was likely seen as abandoned. They referred her to one of several nearby shelters where some 100 extra beds have been set aside for those affected by the clearing. She was doubtful of any long-term solutions.
“Nobody cares where we go,” she said. “They’re just throwing us out, that’s it.”
City workers are currently focusing on connecting people with treatment, shelter or family reunification, according to Wu spokesperson Ricardo Patrón.
"In terms of the ordinance, the law enforcement portion of it begins on Wednesday," he said.
City officials say increased enforcement will be rolled out throughout the next month, and additional outreach workers will be dispatched to connect people with shelter and move their belongings into storage.
“During this process, our commitment to the health, safety and dignity of every resident of Boston will remain steadfast,” the city’s coordinated response director Tania Del Rio told reporters last week.
Jessica Goldman, a trans woman who has received services through the nonprofit Elliot House, says she’s concerned that there won’t be space for people like her in the state’s already overburdened shelter system — or that she would be turned away for being trans, as some of her friends have experienced.
“My friends in the trans community don’t know where to go. A lot of people are going to die because they’re displaced,” she said. “They keep trying to make excuses to arrest people.”
Aidan Chick, who stays at a nearby shelter, says the tents present a public health hazard, but he doubts the sustainability of relocating everyone to temporary shelter.
“You kick them out of this place and then seven or eight other encampments start,” Chick said. “That’s going to make it difficult for them to keep an eye on everything.”
