There's been another cleanup effort at Boston's troubled Mass. and Cass encampment - 10 months after the first one and the city's declaration of a public health crisis.
The Boston Police Department was out Wednesday morning, moving the people living in tents at the encampment.
Officers were on Southampton Street Wednesday morning, appearing to have people move with their possessions just around the corner onto Atkinson Street.
Smaller trash receptacles were rolled out onto Southampton Street, and crews are bringing out snow shovels to pick up trash left behind by people moving off the street.
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The cleanup began around 8:30 a.m. and by 11 a.m. the sidewalk was mostly clear of tents and belongings.
Police were on hand as city workers and crews from the Newmarket Business Improvement District brought in dumpsters and trash receptacles to clean up the area. Social service workers worked with the people living in the area to help pack up their belongings and move them around the corner to Atkinson Street, where police then set up barriers to protect them.
The area by the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard has long been an area that people experiencing homelessness stay at in tents. The city has previously called conditions there a public health risk, unsanitary and dangerous.
The encampment on Southhampton Street had once again grown to dozens of people living on the sidewalks, dangerously close to the busy streets, with needles strewn about the area and frequent reports of violence.
Mayor Michelle Wu visited the area on Wednesday morning to check on the progress.
"We need to do more," she said. "We are in a better place than a year ago when there were very intense encampments and dangerous fires and cold weather and folks living in fortified structures. There are no longer that level of deeply entrenched camps. We continue to work with everyone to remove tents every single day. It is a much better situation, although we still obviously have not solved homelessness and the opiate crisis."
She said part of the reason for Wednesday's move is that there were too many "close calls" with cars nearly hitting people who were out in the street.
"We're really trying to get down to the root causes," Wu said. "The goal is to de-densify the area. The large crowds are not healthy for residents seeking services and treatment here in such a chaotic setting, and it's also not healthy for businesses and residents in the area."
City Councilor Michael Flaherty says violent crime is up 15% in the troubled neighborhood and there have been 34,000 calls for police, fire and EMS. He said the Boston Health Commission is enabling the people at Mass and Cass. The commission said its harm reduction program saves lives.
Fencing has gone up around a number of buildings, including the fire department headquarters.
This is not the first time the city has tried to move people living in tents from the area. About a year ago, the city ordered that people living at the encampment leave. When many residents ended up staying anyways, city crews began a clean up in January, taking down tents and throwing away garbage. Officials at that time said people wouldn't be kicked out without first being offered help twice.
It's unclear at this point what the city's long-term plans are to permanently rehouse people living in the area and help keep it from being overrun with tents again. But Wu stressed the city will need funding from the state and its other partners to help meet this level of demand going forward.
