16 Tents Removed From Mass And Cass Monday; 3 Arrested

BOSTON, MA — Boston authorities removed 16 tents and arrested three men Monday from the Mass and Cass homeless encampment. The removals and arrests marked the first day of a new approach to clearing a site officials have said presents a public health and safety crisis. At the same time, the controversial new approach has been criticized by advocates, doctors, and researchers, who say the approach is overly punitive, and effectively criminalizes homelessness, despite a stated desire not to.

The scene was described as chaotic, as hundreds of people rushed to take down tents and shove their belongings into a bag.

The new approach stems from an executive order issued Oct. 19 by Boston Acting Mayor Kim Janey, which banned “tents and temporary shelters” from public ways in the City of Boston. At the same time, the order forbids any city employee from “requir[ing] an unsheltered individual to remove their encampment from public property unless there is shelter available for that individual,” and outlined procedures for connecting unhoused persons with appropriate shelter and resources. Anyone who refuses those services can be charged with disorderly conduct.

Part of those services include a temporary court called the “Community Response Session,” where a judge rules whether people with outstanding warrants belong in treatment or in jail. On Monday, three men from Mass and Cass with charges of drug possession, larceny, and breaking and entering appeared before Judge Paul Treseler. All three men requested to be sent to treatment for substance abuse disorders, but Treseler only granted one request, according to a WGBH report.

Maxwell Koldoka, 33, of Gardner, was brought into the court on four warrants of breaking and entering, operating under the influence, and drug possession, according to WGBH. Even though his lawyers requested he be placed in a nearby detox facility, Treseler denied the request. Koldoka spent the night at Worcester County Jail and House of Correction, where WGBH reports that 33 inmates and two guards have been quarantined after positive COVID-19 test results. Koldoka has since been transferred to Fitchburg District Court.

“They’re sending people who might be immunocompromised or might have other medical conditions along with their substance use issues to jails and prisons where there are COVID outbreaks,” Oren Nimni, litigation director at Rights Behind Bars, told WGBH. “What the system is essentially doing is sentencing people to potential long-term illness or death for a medical issue, substance use.”

Worcester County Sheriff’s Office Superintendent David Tuttle told GBH Tuesday that he considered the recent uptick in positive cases a “spike” but not an “outbreak.” Tuttle also said that the whole jail has been locked down for two weeks, and inmates who test positive are placed in separate housing units where they don’t interact with one another.

In a statement to WGBH, Koldoka’s attorney Josh Raisler Cohen wrote that his client “needed medical care, which is the stated purpose of this court. Instead he was subjected to a painful and dangerous detox and withdrawal, first while being transported to another county, and then in jail."

The new order requires that individuals at Mass and Cass must be given at least 48 hours to remove their tents, and no one will be required to remove their tent unless they have been offered a bed in a shelter or treatment facility. A city spokesperson told Boston.com that 17 individuals were connected with pathways to transition housing Monday.

Stephanie Garrett-Stearns, Mayor Janey’s chief communications officer, said last week that Community Response Sessions are designed to “target individuals charged with serious offenses who are preying upon the most vulnerable in this part of the city,” as reported by Boston.com. “So while the timing is concurrent, these two efforts are really designed to address two different types of populations.”