Meghan: I’m gonna be pessimistic for a second. And with this temporary housing, there’s other services, like substance abuse and mental health counseling, medical and prescription drug use supervision, and in some cases, acute care for those in immediate danger of overdosing. For those of you who don’t know what that means, sobriety is not required to live in the housing. There were fliers posted notifying residents’ removal saying that help is available, so they were aware, and the major part of Wu’s approach is that with the removal of the tent encampments, they’re providing temporary transitional housing, and this housing is also low-threshold housing.
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Gabby: And there’s a lot of controversy surrounding local neighborhoods and business owners about how to deal with the crisis… but so far, I’m liking what I’m seeing from Michelle Wu. And she says that her difference is that she’s pursuing a “public health” approach. Which, at first, I think that a lot of people were confused by, but then she kind of introduced her own plan to remove encampments by January 12th. Meghan: Yeah, and I know… I mean, I think it would be helpful for at least, like, me to kind of, you know, go over the policies of what the old mayor and the new mayor are trying to do now, I mean, I know that former mayor Kim Janey announced plans to remove Mass & Cass encampments by just, like, completely clearing up the area… but when current Mayor Michelle Wu was elected, she halted that order. Gabby: Yeah, especially where do homeless populations go? You know, we’ve seen these tents come up in other parts of the city, and every time there’s like a sweep-through cleanup, it just disperses into the city, and can really negative consequences for the people that are living there, because they can lose their possessions, or even contact with social service workers who were providing them resources and whatnot. Meghan: Yeah, and there have been multiple attempts to, you know, kind of–not clean this up, but figure out just generally what to do with it, and how you approach such a big problem that if so many, like, systemic issues coming at you from all sides… Gabby: And, for a long time, it’s been seen as a threat to the safety and health of the public, seeing as crime rates have increased, diseases are spreading there… Meghan: And The Boston Globe called it the “epicenter of homelessness and the opioid addiction in Massachusetts,” so… pretty damning words. Gabby: So, Mass and Cass is a tent city that’s around the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard in Downtown Boston. And as Gabby and I are not Massachusetts residents, we both had to kind of brush up on what was going on around there. Meghan: So, today we’re going to be talking about the removal of tents from Mass & Cass. This week, we’re going to be talking about the removal of tents from Mass & Cass, Liam Conner’s hat tip shoutout, and what’s happening on campus. Meghan Keefe: This is Meghan, and this is Episode Three of Behind the Bench. Gabby Levitt: Hey guys, welcome back! This is Gabby. Follow us on Spotify for easy access to each episode! This year's hosts include Gavel sophomores Gabby Levitt and Meghan Keefe.
Here you'll find commentary on hot-button issues, updates on campus happenings, and interviews with BC community members.
Welcome to The Gavel's new podcast series, Behind the Bench.
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