Homeless encampment in front of BPL

Back Bay landmarks were experiencing a surge in homeless occupancy even before the city cracked down this week on the South End encampment known as Mass & Cass, making stakeholders anxious about potential displacement.

A range of factors have increased disruptions from unhoused Bostonians around heavily trafficked landmarks like the Boston Public Library (BPL), Prudential Center and Copley Square.

With the city pledging to enforce anti-tent ordinances once and for all on the city’s largest encampment, civic and business groups in the Back Bay worry they’ll bear the brunt of the fallout.

Meg Mainzer-Cohen, president of the Back Bay Association, says recent months have already seen a dramatic rise in homeless displacement to the Back Bay, a timeline that coincides with the spike in South End violence and the city’s warnings that it would soon disperse the encampment.

“In August things were very quiet, especially given the warm weather. By September, the situation had changed dramatically and we saw a major increase in people in need of services in the neighborhood,” she said. “There’s a large presence in front of the library with a massive influx of people and what feels like an encampment.”

Mainzer-Cohen noted that one camp in particular set up in Copley Square, then was moved by police only to reform around the subway headhouse, bus stop and eventually the BPL, where it remains today.

While city officials insist that they’ve been successful at enforcing existing ordinances against camping everywhere except Atkinson Street, accounts from those in the Back Bay suggest that structures or at least public storage of belongings is by and large tolerated.

“The BPL used to have signs saying no trespassing, and the police would ensure that there was no one sleeping on that property. Those signs do not appear to be there anymore. Back Bay feels less safe. I receive messages expressing extreme concern every day about how this seems to be allowed. You really do get a sense about Mass and Cass moving over to Boylston,” said Mainzer-Cohen.

The Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay (NABB) has noted the same trend. NABB Chair Martyn Roetter said that he’d seen much worse encampments in other US cities and even other neighborhoods, but has received more reports recently of disruptions in the Back Bay.

“People are concerned about the activity around the BPL, and that’s not surprising given all the services the BPL has provided for a long time. People do think the situation seems to be getting more intense,” he said. “Clarendon Street Park as well, that playground has people occasionally finding discarded needles. I don’t think anybody knows what exactly the consequences of implementing the ordinance will be for Back Bay.”

It remains to be seen how the city will handle its pledge to ramp up enforcement in other neighborhoods after this week’s crackdown in the South End. Even as the Wu administration takes a more hardline stance, officials have been careful to make it clear they’re not criminalizing homelessness.

Simply arresting anyone setting up tents on public property isn’t city policy and likely won’t be anytime soon. At time of writing, the Boston Police Department did not respond to a request for clarification on what standard procedure is for dealing with these kinds of encampments.

Both Mainzer-Cohen and Mayor Michelle Wu highlighted the continued faith in care-focused approaches. The Back Bay Association holds regular meetings with care workers and city officials to connect the unhoused with services, and mayor Wu emphasized repeatedly the need for compassionate, long-term engagement with the city’s homeless.

“All these people want to do is get back to work, plug back into community and help their families. There are incredibly inspirational people turning their lives around through sheer determination with just a little bit of extra support from stable housing and medical care. These are the bravest and most talented people I know, and it is really to our benefit when we can put in that little bit of public support to clear the way for them to get back on their feet,” she said at an October 26 press conference.