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‘Seedy and disgusting’: Davis Square residents vent frustrations at public safety meeting
"Could you please do something for us," one woman said, "and stop them from shooting up outside the day care?"
Packed in a nearby church’s sanctuary, residents and business owners of Somerville’s Davis Square gathered for a neighborhood public safety meeting Monday night, anxious to hear how the city is planning to address a seemingly growing homelessness crisis.
However, some residents felt unheard. “Could you please do something for us,” one woman said, “and stop them from shooting up outside the day care?”
Over the past two years, Davis Square’s Statue Park and Seven Hills Park have seen a surge in their homeless populations. Some residents have decried what they describe as an uptick in violence and open drug use. At times, community members have raised the alarm about people setting up tents in the square and pointed to a noticeable increase in litter.
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Mayor Katjana Ballantyne, who lost her bid for reelection in last month’s primary, members of her administration, and Somerville Police Deputy Chief James Donovan spoke Monday about this year’s progress.
But, community members, particularly local Davis Square business owners, criticized what one man called a “piecemeal” approach during an hourlong question-and-answer session.
“We’re seeing our square, which should be this cool, welcoming, fun place, turned into something that’s seedy and disgusting and filthy and chaotic,” said a resident named Jonah, sitting near the front of Somerville Community Baptist Church.
Somerville added three community health workers, Ballantyne said, added a social worker to the library, and opened the first overnight warming center last year. Police patrols have been more than doubled, the officials said, and the city’s nonprofit partner, the Somerville Homeless Coalition, has found 65 people permanent housing since January.
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“Crime and violence is not tolerated. Somerville police proactively patrol and swiftly act to identify and arrest anyone responsible for violence or other infractions such as drug dealing, just as police do anywhere in our city,” Ballantyne said. “What we do not do, however, is criminalize homelessness itself. It doesn’t work, and it’s inhumane.”
New homeless shelter held up in court
Somerville is working to move and upgrade SHC’s homeless shelter from one church to a bigger space at First Church Somerville. However, the work was halted by a lawsuit filed by residents in September.
“Moving would let them have 10 additional beds,” Ballantyne said. “I’d note that that’s close to the number we tend to see sleeping overnight in Davis Square lately.”
One resident said she called the police more than a dozen times last winter to report people sleeping in her apartment building’s stairwells, laundry rooms, and garage. Police were unhelpful when they arrived, she said, so Donovan recommended the resident put “no trespassing” signs up.
Luis Ballesteros, the general manager at Mr. Crêpe, decided this summer to no longer have an outdoor patio after years of issues since the pandemic.
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“Now that you see the square, they’re camping outside, I think we did the right choice,” he said after the meeting. “They talk more about the homeless. They didn’t talk about solutions … we’re getting less business, less hours needed to work, less people working, and more people unemployed.”
Ballantyne: ‘You can ask them what their new plans are for next year’
During the meeting, Ballantyne pointed to Somerville At-Large City Councilors Willie Burnley Jr. and Jake Wilson, who are both running for mayor in the general election.
“You will have a new mayor. They’re both here. You can ask them what their new plans are for next year,” Ballantyne said.
Burnley spoke to the crowd for a moment but stayed after to speak to constituents.
“We should be exploring every financial tool that we have as a municipality to see if we can fast track the building of transitional housing or supportive housing, so that folks can get off the streets, have a place for at least several months, get a job,” he told Boston.com outside the church. “It is very clear that there is a lot of frustration with the lack of urgency from the city.”
After the meeting, Wilson called for a regional approach, joining resources with Boston, Cambridge, and Arlington, to address the issue.
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“First of all, we need to make sure that the shelter gets opened like this. This should have been mediated,” he told Boston.com. “Regional problems demand regional solutions. You can’t have communities off doing their own thing. It’s got to be, we got to coordinate the programs, the services, the policies, otherwise you end up with situations like this.”
The meeting ended abruptly at 7:30, with many residents unable to ask questions. “I thought it would have been a little bit longer,” said Paul Malvone, the owner of Boston Burger Company. “I thought it would have been a little bit more of hearing our frustrations and listening.”
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