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If there’s one issue that has maintained a presence in Boston mayoral campaigns for more than a decade, it’s the area of the city known as “Mass. and Cass.”
The intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard has been described as the “epicenter of the opioid epidemic.” It’s where the vexing issues of homelessness, addiction and mental health collide, along with different views on the policies needed to address them. Debate has intensified this year, with angry residents crowding community meetings and calling on the city to take tougher action on open drug use and people loitering on the streets.
“Our neighborhood is in a state of crisis,” South End resident Andy Brand said at a community meeting over the summer. “To the officials in this room, let me be clear: Your approach is not working. We warned you this would happen. We told you if you did not arrest drug dealers and get people into recovery the chaos would spread, and today it has.”
To understand how we got to this moment, it might help to back up a bit.
When Boston Mayor Michelle Wu took office in 2021, Mass. and Cass was the site of a large homeless tent encampment. At one point, the city estimated there were more than 300 tents lining city sidewalks, with people openly using drugs and staying near access to an array of social services there. Volunteers from churches and nonprofits distributed meals or items to help those living outdoors. It was chaos, but it was contained in a mainly commercial/industrial area several blocks from the nearby residential neighborhoods of the South End and Roxbury.
In 2023, following a reported uptick in violent crimes like assaults, stabbings and sex trafficking, Wu’s administration banned the tents and cleared the encampment. The city offered people housing and medical and mental health services as part of what Wu called a “public health approach” to getting them off the streets. Around the same time, due to violence, the city closed an “engagement center” where people could access services, showers, meals and protection from bad weather during the day, when they weren’t allowed in shelters.
People still go to the area for services. Some providers and volunteers are today restricted in what they can offer on the streets, to discourage crowds from returning.
Today, the streets and sidewalks around Mass. and Cass are mostly clear, except for small groups of three to five people, mainly those who have come for services. It’s not unusual to see several patrols of state and city police and private security officers hired by area businesses. The officers break up groups of people and tell them to move along.
That’s caused small groups of people to scatter into the nearby residential neighborhoods. Residents and business owners have complained after seeing more people sleeping in public areas, break-ins and finding needles in parks and along streets. They’re asking the city to take stronger action, such as deploying more police to the area, making public drug use a crime and involuntarily committing people to addiction and mental health treatment.
The outcry led to Mass. and Cass reemerging as a campaign issue this year. Wu’s main challenger Josh Kraft tried to seize on the frustration; even when he dropped out of the race, he said he would refocus his energy (and money) on organizations working to address the crisis. Earlier this month, a group of residents formed a Mass. and Cass political action committee that plans to rate Boston City Council candidates’ views on how to handle the problems in the area.
“It’s not acceptable for the quality of life of everyone that someone has to come out of their house, with their children, and have someone shooting up in the neck on their front step,” said Sue Sullivan, chief executive of the Newmarket Business Improvement District, a group that represents businesses in the Mass. and Cass area.
In September, the Wu administration told the Boston City Council that it had taken several additional steps, including further increasing police patrols in “priority areas of the South End, Newmarket, and Nubian Square. (City officials said drug-related arrests in the area were already up 85% compared with 2024, due to a new strategy with law enforcement launched in February to crack down on outdoor drug use and loitering).
The city also said it would expand civil commitments, deploy more cameras and lights and limit distribution of clean needles and “harm reduction” drug use items.
“As we have built up a coordinated citywide response to shut down encampments, decrease overdose mortality, and continue to strengthen the continuum of care, our focus is today on ending outdoor substance use in Boston and the criminal activity that supports it,” the City’s Coordinated Response Team said in a memo to the City Council.
Some service providers are concerned that the increased law enforcement presence could prevent people from getting help.
“It feels confusing when there are more services inside but there are more police waiting outside,” said Cassie Hurd, executive director of the Material Aid and Advocacy Program, a nonprofit that works with people who are unhoused and those who use drugs. “There’s a big show of police force right today and it’s really restricting access to health care.”
The issues in the neighborhood first multiplied under former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, who closed the bridge to Long Island in Boston Harbor because it was structurally unsafe in 2014. At that time, Long Island hosted services for hundreds of people at night who were in need of shelter, and mental health and addiction treatment services. New shelters and services were set up in the Mass. and Cass area where many former Long Island residents stayed. Wu has said she wants to re-establish services on Long Island, but it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars and is part of a prolonged court battle with the city of Quincy.
Walsh had bristled at the original “Methadone Mile” moniker for the area – based on the number of methadone clinics there. His administration tried to call it “Recovery Road,” but the name never stuck and evolved to the current “Mass. and Cass.” The Walsh administration also outlined various policies for the neighborhood, but those never stuck either.
Wu is hoping her new policies will result in permanent changes. She has established a task force that is developing new recommendations, including a possible “recovery campus” where people could enter long-term treatment and participate in vocational or educational training. Those recommendations are expected by early next year — just in time for her second term.
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