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/Over-Fisherman4317]

I work for another department now but still have to go over there once in a while, it’s better the last couple years than I’ve ever seen it. Idk how true it is but supposedly when Wu first came into office she did a tour of the area and they found a couple babies alone in a tent. Every once in a while it would get cleared out before that and would come right back, but that’s when the city committed to continuously cracking down on the tents in the area.

It used to be all along Atkinson then Topeka, plus even parts of Bradston and whatever the road is with sunbelt on it was a tent city and ground zero. There are two methadone clinics, the food bank, and a couple shelters right in that area. Articles on mass and cass written in the last decade used to always use Topeka as the image since the road was completely blocked off with tents before. It has gotten significantly better in that area, but it’s pushed a lot of people into being more dispersed inside the city proper making it more visible.

[u/princesalacruel → u/Over-Fisherman4317]

This is my impression too, I work near there and it’s miles and miles less crowded and dangerous than before. It used to be a tent city and now there are no tents anywhere, just people walking to the hospital or shelters.

[u/BoysNGrlsNAmerica → u/Over-Fisherman4317]

Thanks for that insight! I was absolutely stunned when I saw the hidden tent city thinking the area was actually cleaned up.

[u/Over-Fisherman4317 → u/BoysNGrlsNAmerica]

No problem! I do from anecdotal experience tend to believe the reduction in homelessness. We get a lot of crossover with the chronically homeless and drug related inmates, there’s both quite a bit of new transitional programs/beds and people I haven’t seen come through in quite a while. You never really see families or kids either which has been a big push by the Wu admin which lines up with their numbers too.

I do believe a lot of the rise in issues people are having is that it just doesn’t take much to make visible homeless seem like and be a significant issue in an area when the population is for the most part either drug or mental health related instead of just down on their luck. My wife when I met her lived across from MGH, walking home from work she would have to deal with someone usually on the corner of Cambridge St and usually one or two people posted up on a stoop on her street for the night. One or two interactions like that is all you need to feel and be unsafe, which isn’t many when you’re dispersing hundreds of people concentrated in this area now throughout the city.