We deserve the same safe streets promised to every Bostonian—nothing more, nothing less.

Boston’s Mass  & Cass corridor—the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard—has become Boston’s de‑facto open‑air drug market. The crisis is driven not by one clinic but by three high‑volume methadone dispensaries packed into a 0.3‑square‑mile grid: the for‑profit Boston Comprehensive Treatment Center (Acadia Healthcare), the for‑profit Health Care Resource Centers Boston (BayMark Health Services), and Boston Medical Center’s nonprofit program. This concentration has produced a law‑enforcement vacuum where public opioid use, street‑level dealing, and human trafficking occur in plain view—violating Massachusetts General Laws c. 94C and c. 272 as well as multiple Boston municipal codes.

We, the undersigned residents, workers, parents, and taxpayers of the South End, demand immediate emergency action from Mayor Michelle Wu, the Boston City Council, and the Boston Police Department to restore public safety and uphold existing laws today, not next quarter. Simultaneously, we call on Acadia Healthcare, BayMark Health Services, and Boston Medical Center to publish—within 90 days—a binding relocation or decentralization roadmap that removes high‑volume methadone dispensing from our residential streets. Anything less betrays the City’s legal duty to provide clean, safe thoroughfares and leaves children, seniors, and small businesses in daily peril.

Should elected officials and clinic operators fail to meet this timeline, the signatories and allied neighborhood associations will pursue a class‑action lawsuit against the City of Boston, Boston Medical Center, Acadia Healthcare, and BayMark Health Services. The suit will seek monetary damages for diminished property values, reimbursement of municipal clean‑up and policing costs, and injunctive relief compelling the enforcement of existing drug and public‑nuisance laws.

Petition Demands

1. Comprehensive Relocation / Decentralization Plan — Within 90 days, the City, Acadia Healthcare, BayMark Health Services and BMC must release a publicly vetted roadmap and timeline to move high‑volume methadone dispensing to hospital campuses or a distributed hub model outside the residential South End.
2. Short‑Term Environmental Mitigation — Until relocation, the for-profit clinics, Acadia Healthcare and BayMark Health Services are to fund continuous needle pickup, 24/7 lighting, and a dedicated Boston Police–private security overlay for the Impact Zones.
3. Property‑Tax Relief — Adopt Councilor Flaherty’s abatement proposal (Docket #0555) for parcels within the impact zone until safety benchmarks are met.
4. Quarterly Transparency Dashboards — Publish open dashboards tracking crime, syringe pickups, overdoses, sanitation metrics, and real‑estate trends.
5. Independent Oversight Board — Form a board of residents, business owners, addiction‑medicine experts, and city officials to monitor compliance and relocation progress.
6. Cost Recovery & Restitution — BMC, Acadia Healthcare, BayMark Health Services, and any successor clinic operators shall reimburse the City of Boston for all incremental public‑safety, sanitation, and public‑health costs attributable to their operations within the Impact Zone dating back to FY 2019, and establish an annually audited fund to cover all future municipal expenses arising from these services.
7. Enforcement of Existing Drug & Public‑Nuisance Laws — The Boston Police Department and Suffolk County District Attorney must fully enforce federal, state, and municipal statutes that already outlaw possession and public consumption of Schedule I/II opioids (M.G.L. c. 94C, §§ 32A–32E), street‑level dealing, indecent exposure, and disorderly conduct on public ways. The City shall publish monthly compliance reports detailing arrests, prosecutions, and diversion‑to‑treatment placements until crime and quality‑of‑life indicators return to city‑wide norms.

Key Findings

1. Unchecked Open‑Air Drug Use & Crime — Boston Police District D‑4 logged 1,900 drug‑related calls for service in 2024 within a 0.3‑sq‑mi grid; violent‑crime incidents rose 37 % (2021‑24) while citywide violent crime fell 4 % [1].
2. Needle Hazards & Child Safety — Boston’s Mobile Sharps Team collected 10,736 discarded‑syringe pickups in 2024, a 50 % year‑over‑year spike. BOS‑311 and peer‑reviewed geospatial studies show over 30 % of Boston schools—public, charter, and private—saw ≥ 100 % increases in nearby needle reports between 2016‑19, with the highest densities clustered around South End and Roxbury campuses such as Cathedral High School (private), Hurley K‑8, City on a Hill Charter, Blackstone Elementary, and Orchard Gardens K‑8 [2][12]. Several documented needle‑stick injuries to children have already occurred (e.g., a 9‑year‑old Pop Warner athlete in 2023; Orchard Gardens student protest, 2018) [13].
3. Property‑Value Decline & Tax Inequity — FY 2025 assessor data show median residential assessments within ¼ mi of the clinic fell ‑4.6 % YoY, while the rest of the South End rose +3.9 % [3]. Zillow’s broader index (+1.2 %) masks these localized losses [4]. Owners with shrinking equity still pay premium South End taxes.
4. Small‑Business Losses — Retailers on Harrison Ave. and Washington St. report a 62 % jump in shoplifting since 2022, citing higher security costs and reduced foot traffic.  Loss of Walgreens on Washington Street, loss of CVS on Tremont street due to unchecked theft, amongst others.
5. City’s Legal Duty — Section 1‑1 of the Boston Municipal Code obliges the City to keep public ways “in a condition safe for travel.” Current open drug use, assaults, and hypodermic waste violate that mandate.
6. BMC Clinic Ownership & Funding — BMC, a nonprofit 501(c)(3), runs the methadone program through its Office‑Based Addiction Treatment team and Faster Paths bridge clinic, funded by Medicaid/MassHealth, public grants, and major gifts such as the $25 million Grayken donation (2017). Bain Capital no longer operates methadone clinics, having divested CRC Health/Habit OPCO in 2015.
7. Additional For‑Profit Methadone Clinics in the Corridor — Two private operators also dispense methadone within the Mass & Cass impact zone: 
8. Human Trafficking & Sexual Exploitation — Boston Police Human Trafficking Unit arrested 13 men in an Aug 4 2022 undercover operation targeting buyers at Mass & Cass, and investigations continue into traffickers exploiting the corridor’s vulnerable population. BPD’s Human Exploitation & Trafficking (HEAT) partnership with Massachusetts General Hospital reports that encampment structures provide cover for coercion, and outreach teams cite near‑daily sexual exploitation of women and minors. [14][15][16]

•   Boston Comprehensive Treatment Center (Habit OPCO) – 99 Topeka St., operated by Acadia Healthcare
   
• Health Care Resource Centers – 23 Bradston St., operated by BayMark Health Services

 Their combined daily census adds hundreds of patients to an already over‑saturated area.

Monetary Costs to the City & Residents

• Police Overtime — Boston Police collected nearly $4 million in overtime pay (2019‑20) for Mass & Cass details; between 2021 and August 2022 the City spent ~$8 million, nearly double the two previous years combined [11].
• Encampment Enforcement & Private Security — A single tent‑sweep deployment in Oct 2023 was budgeted at $439,000 for one month plus $2.1 million for Boston Public Health Commission‑hired security [10]. The Newmarket Business Association spent $500k – $1 million (2022) on its own patrols [11].
• Lost Revenue — Tax abatements sought by corridor homeowners could shrink City receipts; meanwhile businesses cite inventory loss, staff hazard pay, and rising insurance premiums.

References

1. Boston Police Department, District D‑4 CompStat Reports, 2021–2025.
2. Boston 311 Open Data, “Sharps Pickup Requests,” CY 2024 (downloaded July 2025).
3. City of Boston Assessor, FY 2025 Parcel Database; author’s geospatial analysis of parcels within ¼ mi of 774 Albany St.
4. Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), South End, Boston MA (accessed July 22 2025).
5. South End Business Alliance survey testimony, Boston City Council Committee on Small Business & Workforce Development, Hearing #0923, Feb 14 2025.
6. Boston Medical Center, “Grayken Center for Addiction Medicine Announces $25 Million Gift,” press release, Jan 4 2017.
7. Acadia Healthcare, Form 8‑K, “Acquisition of CRC Health Group,” Feb 25 2015.
8. Acadia Healthcare, “Boston Comprehensive Treatment Center,” provider listing, accessed July 22 2025.
9. Health Care Resource Centers Boston, provider listing, accessed July 22 2025.
10. Boston 25 News, “Boston encampment enforcement to cost additional $439k next month,” Oct 26 2023.
11. Conover S., Koo H., Boynton‑Jarrett R. “Spatiotemporal Trends in Discarded Needle Reports Near Schools in Boston, 2016‑2019.” American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse (2021).
12. Walker A. “Tired of stepping over needles near school, students say enough.” Boston Globe, Dec 18 2018.
13. Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, Press Release, “13 Men Arrested for Human Trafficking at Mass and Cass,” Aug 4 2022.
14. Amanda Beland & Tiziana Dearing, “A look at the efforts to end human trafficking at ‘Mass. and Cass’,” WBUR Radio Boston, Aug 29 2023.
15. Boston Police Department Human Trafficking Unit, “Boston Police Human Trafficking Unit Arrests Suspect in Child Sex Trafficking Case,” Press Release, Apr 9 2025.