On October 9, an overflow crowd packed into the Community Baptist Church in Davis Square for a meeting with the Mayor, City staff, and Police Department leaders -- with a decent number of people turned away at the door due to overcrowding. The turnout was evidence of the public's concern about the situation that has unfolded in Davis Square in recent months. An encampment in Seven Hills Park grew to more than 15 people in August, and a death in the park bookended by two violent incidents had people nervous about safety in the area. Meanwhile, the growing tragedy of homelessness on display in Davis Square has many in our city despairing over what can be done here locally to address a regional and national crisis.

There was anger from some in the crowd about how things had gotten as bad as they had. As upset as some attendees were, there likely would've been considerably more vitriol had the meeting taken place a month earlier, prior to a noticeable improvement in the situation. Still, there were tense moments where people spoke emotionally about feeling ignored and voiced strong disagreement with the City's approach and/or comments by previous speakers.

While many in our community tend to want to look at one side or another of this and focus either on the public health or the public safety issues in play here, I believe our focus needs to be on both sides of this. We absolutely need to be pursuing proven, evidence-based strategies to reduce homelessness and help members of our community suffering from substance use disorder. These are the medium- and long-term approaches that will pay off eventually. Meanwhile, we also need to make sure we're upholding public safety standards.

Ward 1 Councilor Matt McLaughlin had a really good framing of a somewhat similar issue in Ward 1 last summer, when he talked about the dual approaches of compassion and accountability. Compassion in recognizing these are human beings going through an unimaginable crisis. And accountability in insisting on a baseline level of acceptable behavior in our community.

At times the conversation about the issues in Davis Square seems to be getting hung up on the idea of using arrests by the police to somehow address public safety concerns. A policy order by a previous City Council asking the Police Department to deprioritize arrest for minor drug offenses has come up a decent amount. While I wasn’t on the council when that was approved, I absolutely support that approach as smart, modern policing. Violent or threatening behavior absolutely should be taken seriously and arrest absolutely would be appropriate in those instances.

But homelessness isn’t illegal and arresting people simply for an illness like substance use disorder is proven to be ineffective at best and can do actual harm. Fortunately, as I’ve pointed out frequently, arrest is just one tool in the enforcement toolkit. I’ve called for us to adopt a zero-tolerance policy toward public use of illicit substances, with our police officers encouraged to confiscate any of these substances they observe. Our permissiveness has led to an unsafe consumption site in Davis Square, and this is a case where accountability is needed.

I’ll note that in recent weeks, Seven Hills Park has gotten fairly quiet, with the folks who were there relocating to Statue Park in the heart of Davis Square and other nearby parks. At a Davis Square community meeting on October 9, we heard statistics from the Administration that indicated some of the unhoused in the area had gotten into housing. If that’s contributing to the improving situation in Davis, then that’s good news.

However, significant work remains to be done and we can't declare victory and take our eye off the ball with things trending in a better direction. I'll continue working with constituents on this to make sure we're making Davis Square a safe and welcoming place while living out our expressed values.