BOSTON, DEMAND: HOUSEKEYS
NOT HANDCUFFS!
City of Boston Continues to Target & Punish Unhoused People & People Who Use Drugs In Spite of Evidence Based Humane Solutions
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Since 2019, the City of Boston has waged a campaign of criminalization against poor and unhoused community members and people who use drugs. Criminalization, camping bans, and coercing or civilly committing people into “treatment” is costly, and diverts funds that could instead be spent to meaningfully address people’s needs through evidence-based solutions.
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Join us in demanding City of Boston "leadership" say "NO" to cruel, costly, and counterprodutive criminalization and say "YES" to evidence-based solutions that meet unhoused and poor people's self-identified needs!
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STATEMENT ON BOSTON'S ESCALATING CAMPAIGN OF CRIMINALIZATION TARGETING UNHOUSED PEOPLE AND PEOPLE WHO USE DRUGS
In February of 2025, Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration announced an “addiction first” policy as a means of creating a “greater feeling of safety” across Boston and supporting unhoused people who use drugs. The plan offers the false choice of treatment or jail and removing critical harm reduction services as a means to disappear people from the streets. Similar to other stigma-based and anti-poor policies initiated by the City of Boston like the “camping” ban ordinance in October of 2023, this policy will not solve but instead exacerbate the interconnected humanitarian and public health crises of persistent poverty, houselessness, preventable overdose death, and the war on people who use drugs because it does nothing more than perpetuate and punish people for their circumstance, habits, and lack of access to resources.The enforcement of these policies resembles the very same federal immigration enforcement that Michelle Wu is standing against in Congress and is part of a history of carceral response to people surviving poverty in public by the city of Boston - marked by Operation Cleansweep in 2019 under former Mayor Marty Walsh.The City of Boston’s Campaign of Criminalization: Carceral Tactics
Impact of sweeps, camping ban, escalated carceral tactics, and “addiction first” policy.
100+ arrests in under four weeks of addiction first policy that is supposed to bring people to “treatment”
Under the camping ban ordinance, unhoused people in Boston are subject to forcible removal of their belongings and are arrested for simply trying to survive poverty in public.
The sweeps of encampments and camping ban ordinance has caused an uptick in arrests for the use, manufacture, selling or possession of drug paraphernalia which has increased by 22%, and arrests for drinking in public increased by 19%, according to a GBH News analysis of police arrest data.
Creation of central booking that is booking and disappearing unhoused people, only 4% out of hundreds (987 between Nov 2023-Aug 2024) have gotten access to bail. Central booking has also been used to book dozens of organizers & activists who were arrested for protesting against the genocide of Palestinians by Israel & U.S.
Debunking myths & lies: The “success” that the City of Boston claims about housing people is vastly untrue. The markers of success by the administration largely rely on the visual cues of fewer people and tents on the Ave, creating the illusion of a resolution. In fact, the vast majority of people being swept and displaced by the City of Boston have either been scattered on out of county warrants, pushed to other neighborhoods of the Greater Boston area or even across MA, forced into coercive treatment, placed under arrest into a county jail or forced into shelters. And while, the City of Boston claims to have provided resources to people they have scattered and disappeared but we know better - shelters that warehouse people, coercive treatment facilities, and jail are cruel, cause harm, and are counterproductive. To be clear, the current conditions and interconnected crisis unhoused people on the Ave, and across Boston, are fighting to survive every day are the result of the City of Boston’s practices of criminalization, coercion, surveillance, displacement, and coordinated abandonment.Our solutions: Enforcement & punishment is costly and doesn't align with Mayor Wu’s “skinny budget”!! Evidence-based solutions that are responsive to people’s self-identified needs and goals like low threshold permanent housing, voluntary treatment on demand, community-based harm reduction programs, and overdose prevention centers improve people’s health and wellbeing, are less costly, and create broader access to resources for everyone in our community.We call on the administration to end the addiction first policy, rescind the camping ban ordinance, and immediately stop the sweeps of unhoused people. The city must divest from and dismantle Business Improvement Districts which privatize public space, policing and surveillance, and further displacement towards their goal of development. We demand that the City of Boston not spend any money towards the Suffolk County Sheriff’s department, end the negotiated detention agreement between BPD and SCSD and no longer book people at Nashua Street Jail. We have solutions that will work and will fight to see them realized!Closing: Unhoused community members and people who use drugs are our loved ones and neighbors. The current housing crisis in the Commonwealth is likely to cause further displacement and throw more people into houselessness, affecting more of our loved ones and neighbors. We must fight back against this campaign of criminalization!Take Action: Fight back against punishment of unhoused communities!Stop The Sweeps Toolkit
MAAP Material Aid Wishlists
Stop Suffolk Regional Lock UpSigned,The Material Aid & Advocacy Program
The Massachusetts Bail Fund
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TAKE ACTION! STAND AGAINST BOSTON'S CRIMINALIZATION OF UNHOUSED COMMUNITIES & WAR ON POOR PEOPLE WHO USE DRUGS!Since Mayor Wu was sworn into office she has exclusively collaborated with entities that have caused extensive harm including Boston Police Department, the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department, and Business Improvement Districts . With these law enforcers and wealthy business leaders, Wu has enacted policies and practices that outlaws the basic survival of unhoused community members and poor people who use drugs. Wu’s Camping Ban Ordinance, her new “Addiction First” policy, and creation of a central booking process doubles down on the City of Boston’s coercive efforts to disappear unhoused and poor people from Boston’s streets. Criminalization creates the illusion of resolution to the interconnected crisis of homelessness and public substance use but hide a sinister truth - poverty and people cannot be “swept” away.Criminalization is counterproductive. The administration’s cruel and potentially deadly policies are currently exacerbating the crisis and the side effects our broader community experiences - such as the arrests and forced displacements that grassroots community groups are coming together to mitigate and support.Criminalization, camping bans, and coercing or civilly committing people into “treatment” is costly, and diverts funds that could instead be spent to meaningfully address people’s needs through evidence-based solutions. Continuing to invest in criminalizing unhoused people, instead of investing in evidence-based solutions, is counter to Wu’s goal of creating a “lean” FY26 budget. Using our tax payer money to punish unhoused people instead of investing in evidence-based solutions (giving people housing & basic resources!) is in service of her funders and endorsers, including the Boston Patrolmen’s Association. It does NOT center directly affected people, who are the experts in their experiences and needs , or public health research.We demand Mayor Wu make make Boston a city that the most poor and dispossessed can survive in! This means divesting from criminalization of poor and unhoused community members and investing in evidence-based solutions rooted in people’s self-identified needs!Join us making these demands by emailing Mayor Wu, City Council, and BPD to demand they divest from criminalization of poor and unhoused community members and invest in evidence-based and root-cause solutions rooted in people’s self-identified needs!Our advocacy toolkit includes sample emails, talking points, and information to help guide you through the process of emailing Mayor Wu, City Council, and BPD leadership to demand HOUSE KEYS NOT HANDCUFFS!
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