Boston Mayor Wu says National Guard not needed at Mass and Cass

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said she disagrees with calls from some residents of the South End to deploy National Guard troops near the troubled area known as Mass and Cass , an epicenter of the city's intertwined homelessness and public drug use crises.

South End residents say their neighborhood streets have increasingly been the scene of visible drug use and drug dealing, discarded needles and overdoses in recent months. When the city dispersed a tent encampment from near the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard two years ago, a site that had been an open-air drug market, it pushed people who had previously lived and congregated there into surrounding areas , nearby residents say.

Wu has said the conditions are "not acceptable," and in an interview with WBUR aired Tuesday acknowledged the "very intense quality of life impacts and health and safety impacts" facing the South End.

But stationing National Guard troops at Mass and Cass would be a step too far, she told the radio station.

"I don't believe we need or should have a military deployment in our city," she told reporters at an event Monday, according to the Boston Herald.

• Read more: Boston's homeless doc Jim O'Connell says recent crisis among 'the toughest' he faced

Instead, her administration has stressed ongoing efforts to lower overdose deaths, step up law enforcement in the area and connect people living on the street or suffering from substance abuse disorder with social services.

The tents of a homeless camp line the sidewalk in area commonly known as Mass and Cass, Saturday, Oct. 23, 2021, in Boston.(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)

The city announced $200,000 in new grant funding earlier this month to support a coordinated response team focused on helping people reach housing and services.

"We know that this is, again, a complex, interconnected set of issues," Wu said on WBUR. "But we cannot tolerate or accept that Boston should be a city where people have to live outside of the street or where there will be pockets of outdoor, congregate drug use."

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Read the original article on MassLive .