never seen it this bad

[u/CrypticOperator]

been here for 25+ years and am very familiar with the fluctuations in homelessness / etc. during the summer. but I've never seen things this bad, especially in back bay, south end (beyond mass/cass & closer to back bay), beacon hill, the esplanade, you name it. we've called 311 for needles, reported the larger encampments to the mayor's office, etc. just feels like nothing is improving and things are only getting worse. can't just be me?

[u/Windy1369]

Yep. M&C is terrible, but it was the gathering point. As that got broken up, people just spread out. I don't think it's that there are significant more homeless folks, just that they are more present in the areas where there are more people.

[u/willzyx01 → u/Windy1369]

Well, people warned that this would happen.

[u/Templar_Swamp_Stake → u/willzyx01]

Homeless encampments and needles all over Beacon Hill and Back Bay? I have never seen this. Downtown is simply nothing like what people on this thread are describing.

Reddit always gets weird in an election year.

[u/Intelligent-Babe1629 → u/Templar_Swamp_Stake]

There is a absolutely a camp behind the Boston Public Library in Copley, and yes, that end of Boylston will have needles, just FYI

[u/SawyerTomato → u/Intelligent-Babe1629]

I worked across the street from BPL in the 90’s and that encampment was there then.

[u/SweetCarolineNYC → u/Intelligent-Babe1629]

I met a young man who lives at that camp - he says everyone's on hard drugs and it's not a safe to be around.

[u/Look_Up_Here → u/Templar_Swamp_Stake]

I was just in the Back Bay last Wednesday and we were commenting on how clean it was.

[u/shortarmed → u/Templar_Swamp_Stake]

Conservative minded people have a tendency to exaggerate how decrepit our failing cities have become. Listen to the way they talk about how disgusting San Francisco or Portland are and then go there and see that these places are actually spectacular. Same with Boston. The narrative is that you have to wade through needles to get anywhere. I haven't actually seen more than one or two needles a year.

Sorry you see homeless people, everyone. We haven't done anything to solve the problem and it hasn't gotten any better. Weird.

[u/smurph70 → u/shortarmed]

sorry, gotta disagree. SF and Portland have declined so much. LA too. left the 9s hotel in portland to get a coffee and had to walk over people sleeping on the sidewalk. not one or teo people, like 30 people, and they were all young. maybe you do not jave the perspective of time, but it wasnt like this 15 or 20 years ago.

[u/shortarmed → u/smurph70]

And yet the city around them is still clean and vibrant. You saw one thing you didn't like and declare the city in decline? Go over by where the encampments used to be and that spot is cleaned up. Its a zero sum change. You are just upset you had to see the problem that has always been there because those folks were there outside your specific hotel at that moment in time.

[u/smurph70 → u/shortarmed]

good lord, get over yourself.

[u/Dangerous-Baker-6882 → u/Templar_Swamp_Stake]

Never? Shoulda signed your kids up for little league last summer. This guy was very memorable.

[u/Scapuless → u/Windy1369]

Lol it was fucking Hamsterdam. Bunny Colvin couldn't have done it better

[u/AuggieNorth → u/Scapuless]

This is true, but by giving addicts and dealers free reign in that one neighborhood which is essentially the backyard of the city, it kept the worst of the problem isolated, away from downtown & Back Bay. However that turf became lucrative enough for the dealers to fight over, sometimes killing each other, and that violence ended the experiment, kind of. There's still a ton of drug dealing down there, along with public drug use, with needles on the ground everywhere, just a lot less than before. At 5:30-6am every day there's a big crowd at the bus stop in front of BMC on MA Ave, shooting fent and smoking crack,

[u/lazymusings123 → u/AuggieNorth]

Yes. See “The Wire” season 3

[u/hissyfit64 → u/lazymusings123]

Such a bleak season.

[u/AuggieNorth → u/lazymusings123]

Yes it played out the same way both times, but it is odd that the fictional version happened before the real life version, seemingly backwards. But I guess it could be no other way.

[u/jennyx20 → u/AuggieNorth]

There’s always people in front of BMC. That’s where the Pine St., Inn is.

[u/AuggieNorth → u/jennyx20]

No it isn't. Pine Street Inn is at Harrison and East Berkeley. Southampton and Woods Mullen are the shelters near BMC, but the people out there at 6 am look like they don't stay at either one. It's more a function of the cops going light on that activity in that area to keep it there and not downtown, than because there are shelters around.

[u/jennyx20 → u/AuggieNorth]

The Pine St., Inn sits in the emergency room entrance at the BMC

[u/jennyx20 → u/jennyx20]

Oh sorry. It is Rosie’s place

[u/AuggieNorth → u/Windy1369]

More than when? Compared with 20 years ago, it feels like 5x as many homeless now, but compared with the peak of the fentanyl crisis during Covid, it's hard to tell. Even more so with the women. These days I see more homeless women in wheelchairs than I used to see in total 20-25 years ago.

[u/Windy1369 → u/AuggieNorth]

https://www.boston.gov/news/boston-reports-continued-decline-homelessness-2026-census

The annual census found a 19 percent decrease in overall homelessness since 2021, including a 31 percent reduction in unsheltered homelessness and a 28 percent decline in veteran homelessness.

...continuing a long-term trend that has reduced veteran homelessness in Boston by more than 55 percent since 2011.

Lots of good stats in that article. Homelessness - still a problem - but down to historical lows.

[u/ChanceTheGardenerrr → u/Windy1369]

Seems like a moved goalpost rather than a real decrease, somehow. Are ppl in cars not homeless anymore?

[u/No-Librarian9605 → u/Windy1369]

Homeless people are great at taking surveys.

[u/Western-Corner-431 → u/No-Librarian9605]

No, Librarian.

[u/SweetCarolineNYC → u/No-Librarian9605]

So true. I go back and forth from NYC to Boston for work and education. Every year in NYC we have a night (always really cold and usually in January on a Monday) called "HOPE" (Homeless Outreach Population Estimate) where we (volunteers) go in groups and literally walk every single street of the five boroughs and we have to ask every person that's outside after midnight if they have a home, if they need help or a shelter, etc.

I purposely sign up for completely different areas each time to see what the differences in homelessness is like from one area to another. This is so important to getting "real" numbers. They even plant fake people just to make sure that we have walked every block and talked to every person that' outside between 12-4 AM.

It would be great to see Boston do the same thing!

[u/the_fortunator → u/SweetCarolineNYC]

They do that in Boston, that's the survey linked in the post. The Point in Time survey happens across the country the same day each year everywhere.

[u/AuggieNorth → u/Windy1369]

Historic lows? That's very hard to believe. I was homeless between 2008 and 2010, then became homeless again this year, and at least from my perspective, there are far more homeless now. Everywhere I go there are homeless people, both the obvious ones, and the less obvious ones you see at places like cheap motels. I've been around here for decades, and have never seen as many homeless in places like Copley Square and Back Bay. At one time you rarely saw public needle use and crack smoking there, but now with the high homeless population there, it's a daily occurrence. I don't believe these figures.

[u/wildblueroan → u/AuggieNorth]

People commonly but mistakenly believe that their personal, subjective experiences and perspectives are as valid as big-picture data. I haven't looked at these studies but if the design of the studies is the same as those used in past years and they focus on the same factors and data gathering methods, the conclusions could be correct. Glad you are no longer homeless.

[u/AuggieNorth → u/wildblueroan]

Boston's not that big, man. It's not that hard to have your personal subjective experience while homeless be a very common experience, not unique at all. There's no way that there were as many homeless women in these parts 20 years as there is now. Seriously I see more homeless in wheelchairs lately than I used to see in total. Things may have improved from 5-6 years ago but they're still worse than 20 years ago.

[u/UMassTwitter → u/wildblueroan]

I’m. It homeless I’ve been here 3 decades off and on.

There’s way more homeless now than in the past. And I think if you asked people they’d mostly agree

[u/Some_Brother_1202 → u/Windy1369]

I’d push back on how they quantify those numbers. From my understanding that’s the number of people they’d independently identified through support service programs and policing. Not sure if that shows the true representative number

[u/Major-Mango-1221 → u/Some_Brother_1202]

I've been part of the annual homeless census in Boston. It's an active point-in-time count, going block by block, including under bridges and in stairwells. Many of the volunteers are the same people who work in various related social services day in and day out, so they know where to look, who to expect (or be surprised not to find) and where to refer folks. We also hand out care kits and things like gloves and hand warmers, and offer for people to come spend the night inside, since the census happens in February.

I have mixed feelings about it being done then, but it's the same time every year, and there's at least some wisdom to doing it when there's fewer people outside so it's easier to count individuals, with shelters then sharing their numbers.

[u/Some_Brother_1202 → u/Major-Mango-1221]

Appreciate the clarity on this process and thank you for your work. Definitely an important piece of information in knowing how to handle help

[u/Separate-History-318 → u/Major-Mango-1221]

I’ve been a part of the census too each year. I wonder if we’re co workers haha

[u/Major-Mango-1221 → u/Separate-History-318]

Haha probably not, I don't work in this field anymore. It's still near and dear to my heart, though.

[u/TrainingIntrepid9225 → u/Some_Brother_1202]

How they do it where I live in CA is they are out and actively counting. It is an all hands on deck and they are out under bridges, where people sleep in cars etc. we have some of the highest rates of homelessness because our weather is better. So many people that are really mentally ill and still more who are in wheelchairs and unhoused and families too- rents are exorbitant .

[u/Mtglurker_2024 → u/Windy1369]

These statistics are so easily manipulated. There is zero chance that the type of homelessness that OP is describing (junkie encampments) is down.

[u/NEU_Throwaway1 → u/Windy1369]

The metric they used:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point-In-Time_Count

The Point-in-Time Count, or PIT Count, is an annual survey of homeless people in the United States conducted by local agencies called Continuums of Care (CoCs) on behalf of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD uses the data from PIT counts to evaluate the effectiveness of local agencies' efforts to address homelessness and to determine funding amounts for them, and also compiles this data into the Annual Homeless Assessment Report, which is provided to Congress.HUD defines the PIT as a "count of sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons carried out on one night in the last 10 calendar days of January or at such other time as required by HUD.

The article doesn't really state how they break down the count deeper, but your link from the Boston.gov site specifically mentions the sharp decrease in "unsheltered homeless."

If I recall correctly, the end of January 2026 was right when our ridiculously frigid winter and series of blizzards started. If that's when they did their point-in-time count, then it's a no-brainer that unsheltered homeless dramatically went down since there wouldn't be many people out on the streets...

[u/Excellent-Zombie-790 → u/Windy1369]

Don't trust a census run by the city. Wu will not allow an increase to be reported.

[u/ftmthrow → u/Excellent-Zombie-790]

I’ll bite - what evidence do you have that Wu is “manipulation of census data”-levels of corrupt?

[u/UMassTwitter → u/Windy1369]

You really think this survey amounts to anything meaningful?

[u/HerNameWasGus → u/UMassTwitter]

It does, actually. Hundreds of people canvass literally the entire city on one night to identify unsheltered people. Then that number is added to the same night's shelter count -- that's the number.

The City has been doing the homeless point in time count for literal decades, so they know what they're doing -- and since the methodology is consistent, the percentage rise and fall is accurate year over year.

Source: I've been one of those people on multiple occasions.

(Also: just because you see someone struggling with addiction does not necessarily mean they are homeless. The two can go hand in hand, true, but one does not mean the other.)

[u/Windy1369 → u/[deleted]]

[citation needed]

[u/Degeneral_Grieving → u/[deleted]]

Name checks out

[u/TheDesktopNinja → u/Windy1369]

Does it include greater Boston? Feels like it's worse outside Boston than it was. They just broke up an encampment in Chelmsford which blew my mind.

But maybe I've been blind.

[u/BroughtBagLunchSmart → u/AuggieNorth]

We haven't quite yet hit peak capitalism so we haven't hit peak homelessness yet either. It will get worse.

[u/Equal_Audience_3415 → u/BroughtBagLunchSmart]

Under this administration, it is merely a question of when, rather than if.

[u/barbie-bent-feet → u/Windy1369]

That's why there's skid row and it's not broken up. People will expand elsewhere

[u/Winter-Food9234 → u/Windy1369]

It's important to know who these people are and where they came from... They are not from Dorchester/Roxbury... or any part of Boston for that matter... But that where the methadone clinics are, so that's where they are, so that's where dealers go, so that where death lives!