Hey, there! Log in / Register

Uptick in homeless population in Charlesgate following Methadone Mile crackdown

The Boston Sun reports residents living near Charlesgate and the Bowker Overpass are reporting more homeless people setting up camp there following the city's "Clean Sweep" along Methadone Mile.

Neighborhoods: 


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

did anyone think everyone would just pack up and head to whichever city or town they originally came from?

marty's "clean sweep" was a photo op. thats it.

up
Voting closed 0

Same in Haymarket, Central, and Harvard.

up
Voting closed 0

They dispersed.

Not their fault really.

We need more facilities and beds, there's not enough. It may not solve the problem entirely but it might get many into treatment and away from the dealers.

There's no beds so people go in to try to get help and get turned away. Its too easy to go back to the streets and the dealers.

up
Voting closed 0

True. I do dinners at Rosie's and there is a lottery for a bed. Lottery at Shattuck, too. Lotteries should be for scratch tickets, not for a homeless person to take a chance on luck to score a bed for the night. With so many well-off progressives and Democrats in this city, how come they turn into NIMBYS when it comes to helping the needy? Hypocrites.

up
Voting closed 0

I refrained from saying this above because well I was lazy and didn't want to find the article cuz of the globe's paywall.

But they did an expose on the issue a few years back about methadone mile and heroin on our area. One of the things i took away was lack of beds and treatment.

AND that many towns such as Newton or Wellesley or Marblehead do not have any beds to offer their residents. So often, they are dumped onto the street. They head to boston to feed their addictions and then the City of Boston's picks up the tab when its time to get clean.

All towns should have beds available or have a way to get people into treatment. But many of these rich towns do not. This needs to change, you can't push the problem away and say "it doesn't happen here because you don't see it". It doesn't work like that.

up
Voting closed 0

All need to suck it up. We live in a progressive city and state. It's been a one party state and city for more than half a century (not including Republican governor's who have constitutionally limited powers and must deal with majority Democratic legislators.) Skyhigh cost of living, housing costs, and mentally ill, drug addict homeless living on the streets, abandoned buildings, on the subway system , is the norm.Thos is true of every similar city across the country. Even though I wouldn't vote for Baker or Walsh they didn't create the current situation.

up
Voting closed 0

Fox Butterfield, is that you?

up
Voting closed 0

This problem would not happen in a well-maintained and attractive park, like Olmsted originally designed for this space.

up
Voting closed 0

That’s not going to fix the underlying issue

up
Voting closed 0

Should we also demolish the back entrance to Alewife? How about track 1 at South Station? Or the Downtown Crossing station concourse? Then there's the entire BPL...

up
Voting closed 0

Meaning the city only cares about these people when they're too visible to rich people and tourists?

up
Voting closed 0

So you don't want to help the homeless, just get them out of your way by destroying a place where they sleep
at night.

up
Voting closed 0

The problem would probably shift to the section Olmsted designed between Fenway and Longwood stations.

Or the Charlesgate area could be better maintained.

up
Voting closed 0

totally useless suggestions.

up
Voting closed 0

Really convincing to say you aren't fighting the homeless while calling them a plague, repeatedly calling the cops on them, and advocating for hostile architecture so they cannot sleep where there is shelter.

Shameful. These homeless people have probably lived in this city a lot longer than the yuppies in nearby condos who can't stomach their existence. They have every right to exist, and however disgusted you might be with their presence, trust, I am far more disgusted with you.

up
Voting closed 0

Pearls clutched.

up
Voting closed 0

Keep pushing them west until they’re another town’s problem. Why should Boston foot the bill for these, mostly out of town, junkies and bums? Let the towns where they come from carry some of the load for a while.

up
Voting closed 0

Isn't the progressive solution that the wealthiest should be footing most of the social bills?

Cities are also generally where you can get a concentration to scale assistance solutions more affordably than dispersing it, even if it is more visible (which, maybe it should be so you know whether its being solved or not?)

up
Voting closed 0

Your attempted dig at progressives falls flat because per-capita income in Boston is $33k, compared to $41k in Middlesex County. If the wealthiest are to foot most of the social bills, you should be looking at MetroWest.

up
Voting closed 0

How do you know what towns they're originally from?

Why do you think homeless people tend to be in Boston rather than Wellesley? Do you assume the rich residents pushed them out? Or maybe it's because the panhandling is better where there's more foot traffic.

up
Voting closed 0

never mind that they are human beings in a condition I could scarcely imagine, (really I don't want to even try) I'd rather just not see them.

You are trash, sir.

up
Voting closed 0

Most homeless and addicted in Boston are not from Boston. People come to Boston from all over state and the country for free health care and sign up for housing. They can deal, use in the street, turn tricks, and assault Bostonians without any consequence but being sent to "treatment". There they use sell drugs, drugs, turn tricks and insult the workers. Some are from oAsk them they are not from Boston and it is no on Walsh. They treat our city and neighborhoods like toilet. They wouldn't do it in their own towns, that is why they left them.

Our coming Syphilis epidemic is gonna test some compassion and empathy outside Boston...

up
Voting closed 0

Here is the link to, and please read the full article / story.

https://thebostonsun.com/2019/09/20/charlesgate-residents-seek-solutions...

up
Voting closed 0