Return of Mass and Cass encampments frustrates residents, business owners
ROXBURY – Months after the city cleared it out, a homeless encampment at Mass and Cass has returned and residents and businesses say it's worse than ever.
You can hear the frustration in Domingos DaRosa's voice looking out at Clifford Park in Roxbury.
"If you walk around the park, you're going to find countless needles," said Domingos DaRosa of the South End-Roxbury Community Partnership.
The field is about a half-mile from the encampments that have returned to Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard. It won't take long to find the evidence of homelessness and addiction, where DaRosa teaches Pop Warner football.
"I don't feel safe anymore because a lot of these individuals are hallucinating," DaRosa said. "They're pulling out knives. They're using syringes as weapons and they're becoming more and more violent."
Despite attempts by the city to clean up Mass and Cass, the throngs of people have returned with their tents and umbrellas.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu says the warm weather brings more of the homeless outdoors, many openly using drugs as crews try to clean up the trash left behind.
Businesses in Boston's South End say it's disheartening seeing the situation along Mass and Cass hasn't gotten any better.
"They cleaned it up and then the next day it's right back out there again," said restaurant owner Nicole Leo. "We do have a lot of people coming into the alleyways and going to the bathroom and still leaving a lot of needles there."
Leo says she's still finding syringes in her planters.
Officials describe this as a humanitarian crisis. Residents and business owners alike are losing hope for a solution.
"Look how far we've gotten," Leo said. "Not very far in the last two years."