Boston’s New Mayor Tries a Different Tack on Homelessness
Don’t call it a sweep, homeless advocates say: Mayor Michelle Wu’s plan to remove a notorious encampment is starkly different than her predecessor’s approach
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu speaks to reporters about her visit to Long Island in Boston on Jan. 4, 2022.
Photographer: Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Homeless encampments don’t have a long history in Boston — the city’s often-frigid climate can be awfully hostile to rough sleeping.
So the tent city at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, a site known as Mass. and Cass, stands as a testament to the brutal tenacity of the affordable housing crunch, Covid-19 pandemic and opioid epidemic. At its peak size, about 300 people called Mass. and Cass home, and even during the depths of the New England winter scores of tents remained.