Business owner near Mass and Cass to install sprinkler system to protect property
BOSTON - A business owner near Mass and Cass is getting creative to keep people from using drugs on his property. He will be installing an irrigation system on a roof.
Mario Signore manages a large building on Southampton Street. The property houses three different businesses. Every morning he has to sweep hypodermic needles and bloody rags off his loading dock. They also have people using and sleeping under their trucks.
"If we're not stepping on a needle, we may accidentally be driving over a body trying to catch some sleep under a truck," Signore told WBZ-TV. "Sue Sullivan, Mayor Wu, were doing a really good job. They got all the tents, they got all these people out of here. There was hundreds, thousands of tents and people down here. It was insane, it was like a war zone. They cleared that out, but people keep coming right back in."
Signore believes the problems at Mass and Cass are not a homeless problem, but a drug and mental health crisis. His company is trying to help where they can. He has begun employing people who are in recovery programs. Nonetheless, he is constantly dealing with drugs at his doorstep.
"I have friends in Boston who are homeless and struggling with the housing crisis. And they're looking for opportunities, they're looking for shelters. These people who causing the problem are drug addicts. They're not going to the treatment centers. These people are getting resuscitated two to three times a day, and then are back out on the streets. Those aren't the homeless people. The homeless people are the ones we need to help."
The irrigation system will be remote and allow Signore to rain down water onto the dock, if he notices people congregating there to get high.
"I can turn on the sprinkler system on to give them motivation to go away," explains Signore, "It will wash things away like gauze, needles, tabs, and bring it down here to the street where we can sweep it all up."