Council committee holds hearing on declaring Mass and Cass a public-health, public-safety emergency

An evening hearing of the Boston City Council Committee on Public Health, Homelessness, and Recovery examined a resolution to declare Mass and Cass and nearby neighborhoods a public-health and public-safety emergency and humanitarian crisis.

Committee Chair John Fitzgerald, District 3 city councilor and chair of the committee, opened the session by saying the hearing would “level set” the public record and hear from administration officials and residents. The measure — docket 1457, sponsored by Councilor Ed Flynn — drew testimony from city and state officials, public-safety agencies, neighborhood business owners and dozens of residents.

The hearing focused on two competing lines of argument heard throughout the night: (1) residents and business owners described daily exposure to open drug use, discarded syringes, human feces, violent incidents and property crime; and (2) city and state health and outreach officials described ongoing harm-reduction and treatment efforts while warning that a formal public-health emergency declaration would not by itself unlock additional sustained funding.

Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) Commissioner Dr. Bisola Ojukutu told the committee the commission had expanded treatment navigation, increased needle pickup and placed substance-use navigators in community health centers. “We have made 1,185 referrals to substance use treatment and 14,500 syringes distributed last week,” she said, adding that the commission’s monthly average syringe distribution in 2025 is about 81,112 (a 22…