{"id":1999403,"date":"2023-08-13T15:31:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-13T19:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/outrage-immigrants-get-housing-priority-over-bostons-longstanding-homeless-camp\/"},"modified":"2023-08-13T15:34:21","modified_gmt":"2023-08-13T19:34:21","slug":"outrage-immigrants-get-housing-priority-over-bostons-longstanding-homeless-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/outrage-immigrants-get-housing-priority-over-bostons-longstanding-homeless-camp\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston&#8217;s long-established homeless camp overlooked as priority given to immigrants for housing."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Foutrage-immigrants-get-housing-priority-over-bostons-longstanding-homeless-camp%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1999403&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Mass and Cass: \u2063A Troubled Neighborhood in \u200dUpscale \u2062Boston<\/h2>\n<p>Just a few miles from the ivory halls of \u200bHarvard College and blocks from some of the most <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ca-governor-breaks-his-own-covid-rules-to-eat-fancy-french-food\/\" title=\"Ca. Governor Breaks His Own COVID Rules To Eat Fancy French Food\">expensive real estate<\/a> in \u2062the country is a deplorable out-in-the-open encampment of\u2062 wandering \u200cdrug users, a plethora of homeless Americans including U.S. veterans, mentally ill, \u200bsuspected human trafficking,\u200c and heaps of scattered trash that looks more like a staged scene in\u200c a \u200bmovie on the ghetto district of downtown LA than upscale Boston.<\/p>\n<p>The South End\/Roxbury \u200dneighborhood, known as &#8220;Mass and \u200cCass&#8221; for its location at the\u2064 corner of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue, has for a long\u2063 time been in its condition. &#8220;Ever\u200c since I\u200c can remember,&#8221; retired Massachusetts State Trooper Daralyn Heywood, who served\u200b as the first female commander of the state police of the \u2062South End barracks, told The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n<p>Heywood, a Republican, made an \u2063unsuccessful bid for \u2063state senate last year. She now works as a private investigator.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>Related Stories<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/ms-13-sex-offender-arrested-in-texas-5461636\">MS-13 Sex Offender Arrested in Texas<\/a> &#8211; 8\/13\/2023<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/mayor-says-immigration-crisis-to-cost-nyc-12-billion-over-3-years-5456715\">Mayor Says Immigration Crisis to Cost NYC $12 Billion Over 3 Years<\/a> &#8211; 8\/10\/2023<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>She\u2064 and others familiar with Boston politics are outraged by an unintended hypocrisy born out of \u2064a recent\u2062 power grab over\u2063 the\u2062 troubled neighborhood\u2014one \u200cthey say underscores just how far gone the American government is when it comes to \u2063taking care of illegal immigrants &#8220;over their own.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s just disgusting. We have Citizens of the United States, some veterans, in desperate need of help in a \u2064right-to-shelter\u200d state, yet we are buying up hotels for illegals,&#8221; said Massachusetts State Rep. Peter Durant (R-Spencer).<\/p>\n<p>The unwitting hypocrisy brought on by government officials began a little over a week \u2062ago when Boston City Council President Ed Flynn, son of legendary Boston Mayor\u2064 Ray Flynn, became acting Mayor during a 10-day vacation taken by Boston\u2064 Mayor Michelle Wu.<\/p>\n<p>Three days into Mayor Wu&#8217;s vacation, Mr. Flynn declared public outrage over Mass and Cass, \u2062released an open letter calling for its cleanup,\u2064 and brought along local press for a walkthrough\u2062 of the neighborhood.<\/p>\n<p>Flynn told \u2062the Boston Herald, &#8220;It was \u2062worse than [he] \u2063thought,&#8221; and told a local podcast that it was so dangerous that outreach workers had to be pulled from the area. Mr.\u200d Flynn suggested a warrant sweep.<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure style=\"width:600px\" class=\"alignnone\"><figcaption>A row of tents that many Boston residents call home in an area known as Mass and \u2063Cass. (Photo by Alice Giordano)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Not \u200blong after Mr. Flynn&#8217;s public decries, Wu&#8217;s press office issued a public\u2063 statement indicating that &#8220;while she \u2064is physically unavailable,&#8221; \u2064she would \u201cstill be making all major decisions that need to be made\u201d relevant to the neighborhood.<\/p>\n<p>Her office also said there would be no warrant sweep.<\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;mayoral miff,&#8221; as termed\u200b by one national media outlet, fell in the same week Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey declared a\u200c state of emergency over what she \u200dcalled a crisis in a shortage of\u2064 housing and public services for the &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/national-emergency-germany-may-introduce-mandatory-vaccines-as-coronavirus-cases-climb\/\" title=\"'National Emergency' -- Germany May Introduce Mandatory Vaccines as Coronavirus Cases Climb\">rapidly rising number<\/a> of \u200bmigrant families arriving in \u2063Massachusetts.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Weeks \u2063earlier, it was revealed Healey had \u2064allocated millions of taxpayer dollars across the state to secure entire \u2064hotels and other housing for thousands of immigrants.<\/p>\n<p>But neither she, Mayor Wu, nor Mr. Flynn has made any moves to declare a state of\u2064 emergency for housing for the people of Mass and Cass. &#8220;It&#8217;s \u2062hypocrisy at its\u200d highest level,&#8221; said Durant.<\/p>\n<p>In May, Rep. Durant filed a records\u200c request with Gov. Healey&#8217;s office asking for an exact figure of the money being pumped into housing for illegal\u2062 immigration and also for a list\u2062 of the specific hotels that she was securing with the money.<\/p>\n<p>He made\u2062 the records request after learning Healey had secured \u200dhousing in 28 towns for \u20643,853 \u200dmigrants, with more entering the state daily.<\/p>\n<p>Gov. Healey denied Rep. Durant&#8217;s request claiming that the &#8220;Office of the Governor\u2063 is not subject to the Massachusetts public records law.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He and Mrs. Heywood and others, including an on-site social worker who spoke to The \u2064Epoch Times on the \u200bcondition of anonymity, questioned why Mr. Flynn, Mayor Wu,\u200b and  Gov. Healey aren&#8217;t\u2063 declaring state of emergencies for the estimated 200 people \u2063that\u200d make up the Boston encampment.<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure style=\"width:600px\" class=\"alignnone\"><figcaption>A patrol officer\u200c who worked for a private\u200d security\u2063 company hired by the City of Boston walks through a homeless encampment in the city&#8217;s South End district (Photo by Alice Giordano)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Mrs. \u200bHeywood said\u200d years ago, when the population at Mass and Cass was much\u200c higher, police were at least able to bring some of the worst cases from there to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/outrage-immigrants-get-housing-priority-over-bostons-longstanding-homeless-camp\/\" title=\"Boston's long-established homeless camp overlooked as priority given to immigrants for housing.\">government-run mental health facilities<\/a>, but \u200bshe said they were defunded and closed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If they are spending millions on housing immigrants and really concerned about humanitarian needs, why not for their own?&#8221; asked Mrs. Heywood.<\/p>\n<p>She said while there is definitely \u2062a mixture of\u2063 violent criminals, heavy drug users and people with what she called &#8220;hardcore,&#8221; \u2064mental illnesses, many also just need housing and outreach services, like those being provided to immigrants.<\/p>\n<p>Despite his push for public attention to the Mass and Cass \u200dplight,\u2064 Flynn did not respond to repeated inquiries \u200bfrom The Epoch \u200cTimes.<\/p>\n<p>The only \u200dmove\u200d so far to fix the problem was to take away the tents and other makeshift shelters, including a construct\u200b of cardboard boxes and tarps, which was \u200bdone under\u200c Mayor \u200dWu&#8217;s\u200c administration and Mr. Flynn&#8217;s watch as head of the\u200c Boston City Council.<\/p>\n<p>Gov. Healey was still serving as \u2063Massachusetts attorney general at\u200c the\u200d time.<\/p>\n<p>A Jan. 12, 2022, picture that ran in \u2063Politico shows a bulldozer scooping up their only\u200b means of housing along with furniture and other items that made up the\u2063 only place they called home.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, a whole new landscape of such makeshift housing has returned.<\/p>\n<p>Fueling\u2062 the allegations of hypocrisy against \u2063Mr. Flynn, Mayor Wu, and Gov. Healey, \u200ball of whom have promoted the Black Lives Matter slogan, \u2063is \u2064the neighborhood&#8217;s backstory as a place meant to symbolize an improved life for\u200c laborers, minorities, and the less fortunate.<\/p>\n<p>Melnea Cass Boulevard, the epicenter of the squalid district, is \u2062named after a local\u2063 civil rights activist and co-founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, a union for African-American employees\u200c who\u200c worked for the local railroad cars manufacturer The Pullman \u2064Company.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Durant \u2062said there\u200c is &#8220;just no excuse to buy at the very least\u200c to house the people,\u200c especially the veterans who served\u2063 this country,&#8221; alongside immigrants at the hotels being paid for by taxpayers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mrs. Heywood called it the &#8220;ultimate government betrayal&#8221; and questioned why the\u2062 hypocrisy isn&#8217;t angering more.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the situation has proven to be a double-edged sword for businesses that contend with the residual effects\u2064 of the Mass and Cass community.<\/p>\n<p>Last\u2063 year, business owner Domingos DaRosa told CBS News that his property is not only riddled on a daily basis with used needles, but some of the residents are starting \u2063to use them to \u2062threaten property owners who kick them off their property.<\/p>\n<p>DaRosa, who was later issued \u2064a court summons in 2020\u2064 for taking some \u2062of the used hypodermic needles from Mass and Cass and dumping them on the lawn of then Gov. Charlie Baker&#8217;s house \u200din Swampscott, an oceanfront community \u200dabout\u200d 15 miles north of Boston.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What about OUR\u2062 community? Who cares about the safety and inhumane conditions of our community impacted by this humanitarian crisis?&#8221; Mr. DaRosa asked\u200b in a Facebook post. He was later cited for harassment and ordered to stay away from Baker&#8217;s property.<\/p>\n<p><b>Meet The People of Mass and Cass<\/b><\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, \u200b(Aug 12), the day Mayor Wu\u2062 was \u2063scheduled to return from her vacation and take back the rights, The Epoch Times walked into the zone of Mass and Cass with no police \u200cescort and spent the day talking to many\u200c of the hundreds \u2062of people who call the squalid encampment \u2064home.<\/p>\n<p>One resident, a 27-year-old\u2064 white man wearing a Red Sox hat who \u200clanded there at Mass\u2063 and Cass after he and his mother got evicted,\u2063 offered up a bottle of water, saying, &#8220;I know you must be hot standing out here all day.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure style=\"width:600px\" class=\"alignnone\"><figcaption>A young man who grew up in Boston\u200c walks\u200b through a Boston homeless encampment where he has been living since he and his mother were evicted (Photo by Alice Giordano)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The young man who asked to remain anonymous told The Epoch Times that he knows &#8220;everyone thinks \u2064we&#8217;re all strung out druggies here, and\u2063 we&#8217;re not.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Another resident that spoke with The Epoch Times was Michael Banks, a tall black man who spoke especially articulately. Until just a \u2064few\u200c months ago, he lived in an apartment in \u200cnearby Roxbury until alcoholism, he admitted, &#8220;got the better of him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Banks, lucid and clearly not under the influence of drugs or alcohol, spoke about the disgust he felt about the way the city officials and \u2063media have portrayed the area, noting that when Flynn did his &#8220;media walkthrough,&#8221; he didn&#8217;t stop to talk to a single person living on the streets of \u2062Mass and Cass.<\/p>\n<p>He said the same goes with the media, which has been running stories almost daily about\u2064 the Flynn\/Wu controversy alongside \u200dthe stories about all the services being offered &#8220;unconditionally&#8221; to\u2063 illegal \u200bimmigrants.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Nobody \u200chas bothered to come and talk to us,&#8221; he said, &#8220;you&#8217;re actually the first.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Banks talks about how the media chooses to\u2063 write about the smell\u200d of human urine, the scatter of needles, \u200cand people having \u200bsex in public\u2014as if &#8220;we want to live in this.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He said the \u2064encampment had been used as a &#8220;political freak show&#8221; and that he and others have talked about how \u200ddegraded they feel over the &#8220;well-publicized priority&#8221; their \u200down government officials are given to illegal immigrants\u200d over them.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They&#8217;ve \u2062complained about food and scratchy \u2064sheets,&#8221; said Mr. Banks, &#8220;and we&#8217;re American citizens quite literally sleeping on the\u2062 pavement.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Asked about three recent stabbings reported here recently by\u2062 the Boston police and\u2062 even a stolen dog traced recovered near the encampment, Banks responded, &#8220;Yeah, of course, there&#8217;s some bad people here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s what happens when you put all your homeless people, from people with severe drug addictions to people who just\u200c shouldn&#8217;t\u2062 be out \u200bon\u200b the streets, in one spot with no bathrooms and no privacy,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>He pointed \u2062to one man standing alone, talking to himself with\u2063 his eyes closed, and\u200c rubbing his arms seemingly uncontrollably. The Epoch Times also observed many disabled people including a man who was missing his foot and was confined to a wheelchair.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Where are Flynn and Healey&#8217;s concerns for him?&#8221; he asked.<\/p>\n<p>Until recently,\u200d Danielle Boyle, one of the dozens of women who call\u2064 the encampment \u200bhome, worked at a local Dunkin&#8217; and lived in \u2064a trailer in nearby Revere.<\/p>\n<p>Ms. Boyle said when the property was sold, she was told to leave because\u200c the \u2062trailer was being moved.<\/p>\n<p>The 39-year-old admitted she had a troubled life and struggled with an addiction to cocaine and heroin. She\u2063 spoke fluently with The Epoch\u200b Times for more than an\u200d hour, in large part about all the attempts she has made to get housing and \u2062being told &#8220;there \u2064was a waiting list.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d kill to be in any hotel\u2064 room.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just miles from Harvard College and pricey real estate lies a shocking encampment. It houses drug users, homeless Americans (including veterans), the mentally ill, and suspected victims of human trafficking. The area is strewn with trash, resembling a wasteland rather than a civilized society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":283,"featured_media":1999404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1999403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/283"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1999403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1999404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1999403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1999403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1999403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}