Saturday meeting with candidates on park situation, 1 pm, 7 Hills Park
Christopher Beland
I saw this poster tacked to a utility pole today. I have no idea who is sponsoring this meeting (kind of a red flag), but my hair is on fire about these problems and I thought other folks would be interested in attending, too.
-B.
CALLING ALL DAVIS SQUARE RESIDENTS
Join us for a Community Meeting to develop an action plan addressing:
- Public Drug Use
- Encampments
- Disturbance of Peace
- Littering
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2025 1:00 PM
SEVEN HILLS PARK, DAVIS SQUARE
Hear from Candidates in the Upcoming Somerville Election:
- Jake Wilson - Candidate for Mayor
- Kristen Strezo - Candidate for Councilor At-large
- Wilbert Pineda - Candidate for Ward 7
- Emily Hardt - Candidate for Ward 7
Let's work together for a safer, cleaner, and stronger community!
Zachary Yaro
Kind regards,
Zachary Yaro
Allison Lund
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Jeff Byrnes
> “Thanks for reaching out. It is not being organized by a group, but was initiated by someone who lives right outside of 7 Hills Park, Kenda Mutongi. I don't know her personally but from what she has said, she is just a frustrated resident who teels like the City hasn't done enough. I'm happy to forward you her email so you can read her statement -- just send me your email address.”
Jeff Byrnes
he/him
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David
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PJ Santos
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Callie Wiser
I just received a response from the mayor’s office to an email I sent to 311 and the mayor a couple weeks ago regarding encampments, the love seat moved into the public space beside the Kindercare, and trash. This is the first time I’ve received a response, and I thought it worth sharing here in case there are things in it that are new or of interest to the group.
Thank you for your email. It has been shared with Mayor Ballantyne, who asked that I respond on her behalf. The Mayor would like to acknowledge your concerns about the Davis Square area and provide her assurance that our teams have and continue to be actively engaged to address the range of challenges here. The health and safety of all residents remains our top priority.
A community meeting has been scheduled for Monday, October 6, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Somerville Community Baptist Church (31 College Ave.) to discuss related issues. Updates will be given by Mayor Ballantyne, Police Chief Benford, and additional staff from SPD and Health and Human Services. All Somerville community members are invited to attend. In the event the church reaches capacity, the meeting will also be livestreamed at youtube.com/SomervilleCityTV. For people watching the livestream, questions may be submitted in advance to davissafe...@somervillema.gov. Please submit by Friday, October 3.
Your message was also shared with the Somerville Police Department, our Department of Public Works (DPW), and our Health and Human Services (HHS) Department. At the Mayor’s express direction, City staff continue to work actively and with urgency to prioritize the wellbeing of all our residents and to promote safety in Davis Square and all our public spaces.
Our approach consists of four key strategies:
- Creating safe, alternative spaces or opportunities for those experiencing homelessness (SHCs daytime engagement center, Winter Warming Center, other stabilizing services)
- Connecting individuals with needed resources (shelter, housing, health services, job supports)
- Building service capacity (supporting increased shelter capacity at SHCs proposed new shelter, adding outreach and social service staff, creating our Community Health Worker team)
- Ensuring quality public spaces for the use of all residents (public space maintenance and public safety presence and enforcement)
At the core of this is an equal commitment to the humane and supportive treatment of people facing the extremely difficult challenge of homelessness as well as to the goal that all community members can comfortably and safely share our public spaces.
Below I’ve included some more detailed information about these ongoing efforts:
- Ongoing Maintenance Efforts and Long-term Strategy:DPW is actively conducting enhanced regular trash collection, regular street sweeping, and public space maintenance throughout the Davis Square area. They are also replacing some traditional waste bins with higher capacity Big Belly waste receptacles. DPW leadership are coordinating with businesses whose customers contribute heavily to waste bin usage on collaborative solutions. Other maintenance improvements include, DPW placing a porta potty in the area, which is serviced daily by a hired contractor. We recognize that high volumes of trash and other items can accumulate, and while staff proactively monitor this, residents are also encouraged to report excess trash and litter through 311—these reports support DPW’s efforts to triage their resources. Finally, Mayor Ballantyne is working closely with DPW, SPD, and our community advocacy partners to develop a new Davis Square maintenance plan that includes enhanced interdepartmental coordination on upkeep and maintenance.
- Coordinated Outreach and Moves into Shelter/Housing: Our partners at the Somerville Homeless Coalition along with the City’s Community Health Workers are intensively focusing engagement efforts in Davis Square. Interactions range from providing essential resources (such as water, food, and sunscreen), to connecting individuals to services such as SNAP benefits, MassHealth, employment opportunities, rehabilitation programs, and other support services. They are actively assisting unhoused residents to find and apply for housing opportunities. In addition, SHC, with the City’s support, continues to manage the Daytime Engagement Center for those needing space or services. The City has contributed funding and support to add shelter bed capacity at SHC’s proposed new shelter nearby. Just in the past two months, SHC has completed roughly 200 housing search meetings, 164 mental health meetings or touch points, and successfully moved 11 individuals into permanent housing and 8 into shelter.
These services are designed to humanely stabilize individuals and connect them to lasting alternatives to shelter and housing – a proven method for longer-term success, unlike arrests or clearing of persons, which tend to lead to worse outcomes, longer homelessness, and shifting of overnight spots to yards, porches, or other public spaces.
- Public Safety Presence: While maintaining a compassionate, community-centered approach, SPD continues to hold increased patrols in the area and to conduct law enforcement. Between June 30 and September 21, SPD has conducted 806 direct patrols and 455 routine park walk and talks. A reminder that if an emergency arises, please call 911.
- Community Resources: Recently added to the City website, somervillema.gov/howtohelp offers a helpful guide for how to report any concerns and help care for your neighborhood.
Again, in a national and state environment where homelessness is rising but resources are not, Somerville is undertaking a combined public safety and public health response to address immediate real-time issues as well as root causes. These efforts aim to relieve pressure on our public spaces and offer our unhoused greater opportunity for stability.
The work is ongoing and we will continue to evaluate and evolve our efforts.
Again, thank you for your message.
Best,
Victoria MacGregor
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Christopher Beland
taken care of already? If anyone's wondering about the furniture next
to the Holland St. Red Line entrance (facing Life Alive outdoor
seating), the city has determined that's on MBTA property and their
responsibility to remove. Supposedly the MBTA has been notified, but if
you have feelings it doesn't hurt to complain to them
directly: https://www.mbta.com/customer-support
-B.
Christopher Beland
> We should reach out to the organizer and invite them to attend a DSNC
> meeting / encourage them to run this through the DSNC in the future.
> It's great they're passionate about the issue, but between this, the
> city's meeting, and the DSNC, it sounds like there's a lot of
> disjointed processes going on. Organizing in one place might be more
> effective at coming to agreement + getting the city to listen.
other all the time when we're watering our plants. I mentioned the DSNC
in person at the event, and just sent her a followup invitational email
with our contact info for this list and our meetings and our board. I
also attempted to sign up for the Davis Square Friends Google Group so
I can join the folks who relay interesting messages from there.
I agree there's a lot of power in unity and coordination and de-
duplication of effort. There is also value to independent activism -
often different groups have different approaches which can complement
each other, and individuals and focused groups can act more quickly on
specific ideas or be more creative and break through a general
reluctance to try certain things. So I'll "yes and" your sentiment and
encourage both. 8)
I did see a lot of DSNC faces at the event (yay!) and took a bunch
notes from the event and after-conversations with some people who are
living in the parks.
-B.
Beth Kevles
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Christopher Beland
Since people were asking for more information about the September 27 meeting in Seven Hills Park and candidates' written replies, I'll share what I've read, my meeting notes, and also links to videos of later meetings. (Responses seem to be getting more polished over time, and are much more detailed in writing.) At least some candidates will be coming to today's DSNC meeting.
The organizer, Kenda Mutongi, said the final straw that led to her calling neighbors and candidates for office to the impromptu meeting was an incident she witnessed on September 23. She said a DPW worker was cleaning up after a large group of people who spent the night in front of the Kindercare, who were actively littering. The worker reportedly got frustrated and tried to give someone a broom and get them to help clean their own mess, but instead of help they got called names and it sounded like things started getting physical. I've since heard from Jake Wilson that DPW grounds crews jobs are 40% vacant, which may explain why garbage left near the porta potty was getting left for 2-3 days at a time despite assertions via 311 and from the mayor that the park was getting cleaned every morning. (And maybe why the remaining DPW staff is getting frustrated.)
Kenda reported that some police privately feel constrained by their inability to arrest people for simple drug possession. Publicly, police say this is not so much a city policy as a district attorney policy...reportedly the Somerville Police Chief was told by the DA not to bother arresting people for first-time drug possession. People who are arrested (not necessarily for that) can reportedly sometimes end up back in Davis faster than the arresting officers finish their paperwork. JP Licks' business is reportedly down 20%.
To my ear, candidate speeches fell at various places on two spectrums. The first is concrete proposals vs. vague direction. Pretty much everyone agreed we should have compassion for people experiencing drug addiction, mental illness, and homelessness; and also that the impact on the rest of the public is problematic, including making some (but not all) people feel unsafe in public spaces. Within that though, I think there is a second spectrum of aggressively intervening to stop problematic behavior and remove people from parks vs. aggressively providing the assistance everyone agrees is needed and protecting people on the street from harm in the meantime.
Jack Perenick stood out on the "concrete proposal" end. He proposed free transportation (preferably paid for by the state) to connect people in Davis to the Cambridge Health Alliance behavioral health treatment center near Inman. He also proposed setting up a drug court for Somerville that would allow arrestees to opt in to treatment. (This would need approval from non-city authorities.) He said Boston has a similar system which 98% of people opt in to. Responding to a question about rats, he said fines for private businesses who don't get overflowing trash containers picked up need to be higher, and escalate for repeat offenses. Currently, he said, it's a $100 fine, less than a dumpster pickup.
Jake Wilson had also previously mentioned looking into a drug court, and regional coordination. Responding to a question as to whether the encampment in front of JP Licks was acceptable, he said no, and when asked what should be done about it, he said police would have to ask squatters to leave, and failing that remove belongings from the area, preferably with the owner present, and give them back their property somewhere else.
Holly Simione was on the "I want to feel safe" end of the spectrum, favoring more aggressive intervention. Holly explained to the crowd that plainclothes police would surveil and arrest people as they had done in Cambridge. She proposed solar-powered lighting to light up Davis "like Fenway Park", and implied (without citing evidence) that more people aren't arrested because the mayor doesn't want to make the crime stats look bad.
Wilbert Pineda was also on the aggressive intervention end of the spectrum, talking about how Davis has gotten too gross for many young people to want to visit, wanting to prevent encampments, and saying something about a new ordinance to pick up trash.
Ben Wheeler was more on the compassion end while acknowledging some people do feel unsafe and it's not just that they don't want to see unhoused people. Other than suggesting regional coordination, pretty vague.
Jon Link and Emily Hardt were also on the compassion end. Jon challenged the words used by the organizer, and proposed unarmed first responders. Emily suggested storage for squatters' belongings, implementing the DSPSWG recommendations, repeating what helped last year, learning from other cities, and communicating more. Jon Link was the only candidate who responded to PJ's question of whether the city should drop the special permit requirement for building homeless shelters in certain zones; he supported that, if services were provided.
Jon and Emily demonstrated a strong willingness to get hands-on and talked to people squatting in the parks; after the speeches, they came around with me and Melissa (who had worked for the state with this population and advocated permanent supportive housing) and a neighbor named Frank who I hadn't met before. We spoke to one woman who said she was homeless and had been raped on the street, so she uses drugs to stay awake as much as possible so she won't get raped again. She suggested building tiny houses for the homeless, and mentioned she grew up with a rage-prone alcoholic mother. Another woman was too high to speak. While Food Not Bombs was giving out food, we spoke to a family that has low-income housing; we didn't find out their reason for spending hours in the square. They told us some people prefer to be on the street but do go to warming centers in the winter. Another man said he is unhoused, and as a former contractor would be willing to spend 70 hours a week helping to build housing.
We also spoke to the man who fixes scooters and camps in front of JP Licks. He said he broke up with his partner (I think a couple years ago) and ended up sleeping in his car. When it was towed from the Star Market parking lot, he ended up in Davis where he had previously made deliveries. He said the Eliot organization offered a subsidy of $2400 rent for two years, but had refused it because he would have had to have had a roommate, and he was uncomfortable having to get undressed around someone he didn't know, who that he would be unable to get rid of if they behaved intolerably. There was a confusing story about different priorities given by housing programs for people who use drugs vs. those that don't; he also told us both that he had never used drugs, and later that he was too high to see all of us clearly.
It seems not all the candidates were invited to the meeting in the park, and not all were able to make it, so it can be difficult to make decisions based on that alone. I think it's also better if people hear from candidates directly rather than through me, so I've collected the written responses so far shared by Kenda. Those are included at the end of this email.
Cambridge Day also did a story on the September 27 meeting:
and there was a Reddit discussion:
All the city councilor at-large candidates were present at the October 20 debate in the Crystal Ballroom, and there is full video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0cEO8L3cks
If you just want to hear answers about Davis and Union parks, that question starts at 33:45.
Both remaining mayoral candidates did a head-to-head debate on October 20 as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jMVMRmQ0n0
If you want to hear them talk about the problems in Davis parks, that starts at 25:30.
If you want to hear from the outgoing mayor and city staff, the Boston Globe did a story on the October 7 meeting:
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2025/10/07/davis-square-public-safety-meeting/
and the full video is here: https://www.youtube.com/live/Trgb2oiKV8w
After the meeting ended, the church staff had to shoo people out so they could go home. This is perhaps why the city staff did not extend the meeting duration, despite an audience member leading a mutiny to take a voice vote to do so.
Kenda's question:
For two years, Davis Square has been dangerously neglected. Statue Park and Seven Hills Park—spaces meant for children, families, and commuters—are now littered with trash, dirty clothes, and feeding rats. What were once community spaces have been overtaken by frequent brawls, drug dealing, open drug use, and filthy encampments. Parents no longer feel safe walking their children through the parks. Commuters rush through instead of stopping. Businesses are losing customers. A place that should feel like the heart of our neighborhood now feels hostile and unsafe. Police want to help, but they say the city’s policy to “de-prioritize arrests for drug possession” leaves them powerless. We would like to know SPECIFICALLY what you will do to help local voters and taxpayers feel safe again so they can enjoy Davis Square and its public parks?
Response from Marianne Walles:
I believe that this needs to be addressed in a comprehensive way. We as a municipality must address the issue both locally and at the state level. Funding for shelters, substance abuse, and mental health services have been reduced. This includes case managers, social workers, and building space. Moving people/or arresting them will not solve the problem, it just shifts it temporarily or moves the issues elsewhere. Police are only allowed to hold people for a certain amount of time. We must assess and find people the services they need and help them obtain those services. Which also means increasing the staff and funding for local agencies. There have been long waiting lists for programs and shelters. The closing of the Long Island Shelter in Boston has had a ripple effect for years on people and communities While working on the above we simultaneously increase city services to keep the area as clean as possible, including needle drop boxes. We as a community also need to be willing to have/fund shelters and treatment programs within Somerville.
Response from Jack Perenick:
Let me start off by saying I visit Davis Square at least 3 times each week, it's a quintessentially Somerville part of our city, and it deserves a city government that enables it for success. particularly in the face of its current challenges. I believe we need to acknowledge that the city's current response to public drug use has failed some of our most vulnerable residents. We need to look at what other communities have done that have proved effective. One change in approach I've suggested is that Somerville adopt a Drug/Recovery Court program. I've decided as a candidate to come out strongly in favor of a proposal I believe will make us more successful in helping people gain stability in their lives and improve the safety of Davis Square. I believe Somerville needs to host a Drug/Recovery Court, here's what that means:
- Why the current binary approach doesn't work:
In 2015 the Council voted to "de-prioritize arrests for drug possession" because they saw the failure of incarceration to solve the fundamental causes (and therefore prevalence) of drug addiction; however, ignoring the problem simply is not the correct solution either. A Drug/Recovery Court program changes our options from beyond the binary (make unhelpful arrests or ignore) and fundamentally changes what the nature and effect of police involvement in instances of public drug use means.
- What a Drug/Recovery Court is and why it is a different, more effective response:
A Drug/Recovery Court combines public health and public safety responses to public drug use. Under this statewide program, which is present in a number of cities including, an arrest for public drug use is made—but instead of a prison sentence followed by a return to our community on even more unstable footing—residents who committed non-violent drug crimes are connected to treatment and other recovery support services in connection with follow-up or parole services.
This system is a better way to connect residents in need with resources they would benefit from, but are unlikely to voluntarily pursue long enough to reach meaningful stability. Hosting Recovery Court program services in Somerville would move us away from a carceral response in favor of evidence-based approaches that have shown dramatic benefits for residents suffering from drug addiction. The National Institute of Justice, the research and evaluation service of the US Justice Department, found that a community increasing placements in a Drug/Recovery court program resulted in a 58% increase in incidences of employment, education, family functioning, and financial stability and reductions in recidivism for participants. (Source)
- What I want to see Somerville do:
We need to work with DA Ryan to separate Somerville's legal process of enforcing state narcotics laws from the wider county system and join 30 other MA cities in hosting a Drug/Recovery Court; right now we have changed our police response, because we cannot control what happens after an arrest; a Drug/Recovery Court with jurisdiction for Somerville enables us to respond to these cases differently than other Middlesex County cities and towns want to. This is an existing and well presented response that opens Somerville residents and our community to more state-funded resources.
I wish I had space to detail other responses to our current mental health and crisis services, because this is just one approach I believe we need to change. I've written a bit about them here: www.jackforsomerville.com/priorities#helping-homeless-residents We would also substantially benefit from facilitating by request transportation for residents who want to access our area's Community Behavioral Health Center at CHA in Cambridge, a state-funded program that connects people in crisis with medical and wrap-around services that are geared towards both insurance-free crisis intervention and helping people make long-term plans for stability. It's a critical way we could expand the spectrum of assistance to residents who want help and are more likely to accept it if we reduce structural barriers.
Homelessness and crime are incredibly complex societal issues, and so unfortunately so too must our responses to them be. Davis Square's future success depends on so much more than just addressing this issue as well. I'm looking forward to addressing some of those when I come to speak at the DSNC meeting on Monday the 27th. In the meantime, please feel free to get in touch with me at my website: JackforSomerville.com.
Response from Kristen Strezo is attached.
Response from Jake Wilson:
When we look at what’s happening in Davis, we see homelessness and substance abuse crises playing out. They are often intersectional, but these are two distinct issues and we need plans to deal with both.
Our response needs to center both compassion and accountability. We can never lose our humanity and forget these are people going through an absolutely hellish experience. At the same time, we should insist on a baseline level of behavior and conduct from everyone in our community, housed or unhoused. It is okay to have expectations of people. It is even good to do so.
We need to address this in the short, medium, and long term. Right now, we need an expanded low-barrier shelter open in the relocated space on College Avenue. This has been stalled by a legal challenge, and we must get this dispute mediated and the shelter opened to meet the immediate need in the neighborhood.
In the medium-term, we have to be creating permanent supportive housing in Somerville. We lag behind our neighboring communities in this area, and it is ultimately the solution to homelessness and substance abuse disorder. Giving these folks a roof over their heads isn’t enough. We need to make sure they have the wraparound services necessary to set them up for success.
And in the long term, we need to work with municipal partners to get the treatment facility on Long Island re-opened. In the 10 years since the bridge closed, we’ve seen the impact across Somerville, Boston, Cambridge, and other neighboring cities. The absence of a high-volume recovery and support center has created a demand for low-volume support systems fragmented across the region, systems that have been unable to support the growing demand for services by an increasingly vulnerable community. The reality is that this regional failure has created local impacts, such as struggling storefronts and local economies, trash and unkempt public spaces, and dangerous situations for both our housed and unhoused neighbors.
This is a regional crisis and it demands regional solutions. Each of these tiers of solutions requires collaboration and partnership with neighboring municipalities, syncing policy objectives and approaches so that support offerings and enforcement measures are consistent across city limits. My relationships with city councilors, our state delegations, and municipal leaders across the region are proof of my collaborative approach – one that welcomes partnership and coordination instead of every municipality going it alone.
As Somerville’s next mayor, I will aggressively pursue these short-, medium-, and long-term solutions while working in close collaboration with leaders from neighboring communities to meaningfully and impactfully address these crises.
Response from Will Mbah:
I’ve listened to the community speak loudly and clearly at a series of public safety meetings and in private conversations. There seems to be a broad consensus that we have not been striking the right balance on these issues. The community has a strong desire to help the people who are struggling with drug addiction and mental health issues, but doesn’t want us to tolerate their open drug use, or dangerous, threatening, or anti-social behavior in our most heavily-used public spaces while we wait for our longer-term support and health-focused interventions to yield meaningful results.
It’s difficult for the Council to prescribe specific methods, and our strategies may need to change over time as we see what works and what doesn’t. But what the Council can do is articulate to the administration that our constituents want to see a change in policy that prioritizes public safety, and ensures that Davis Square, Seven Hills Park, the Community Path, and other cherished public spaces feel clean, safe, and welcoming for everyone.
We need to make sure that individuals can’t claim public spaces for long-term exclusive use. We need to hold everyone to reasonable standards of behavior, and hold all users of the Square responsible for keeping it clean. And we need to clearly state that we won’t tolerate harassment, open drug use, theft, or other criminal actions that disrupt businesses or other residents. We need to achieve these results in a way that’s as consistent as possible with our collective values of compassion and recognition of the humanity and personal struggles of the people involved, but we do need to achieve them.
I also think it’s important to separate the issue of drug use and public safety from the issue of homelessness. They are related and overlapping, but they are not the same. There have always been unhoused people in Davis Square who are generally law-abiding and harmless; they are not the source of the public safety threat I have heard for the past 1-2 years. In fact, they are often among its most vulnerable victims. Conversely, some of the people who are responsible for the recent drug use and hostile behavior are probably not unhoused. We need to ensure that any enforcement steps we take are not directed at homeless people in general, but rather respond to the actions and behaviors of specific individuals who make the Square unwelcome for others.
We should judge our strategies for dealing with our public safety issue not on metrics such as how many homeless people we’ve managed to help find housing (since most of them are not responsible for our public safety problems), or on how many needles we’ve collected in sharps boxes (which is an indication that there are more, not fewer people with drug addiction congregating in our public spaces); but rather on metrics such as a reduction in reports of fights, harassment, public drug use, or theft, and an increase in the number of people returning to the square to eat ice cream, or bringing their kids to Seven Hills park to run around. For years, Somerville has been living proof that it’s possible for a city to be fiercely progressive and compassionate to the most vulnerable among us without devolving into a place that’s unsafe or unlivable for anyone else. Let’s make sure we don’t lose that magic formula.
Response from Emily Hardt attached.
Response from Ben Wheeler:
I want to talk honestly about what's happening in Davis Square. I've been getting a lot of questions about public safety, police budgets, and how we handle the very real challenges our community is facing. I want to acknowledge that, for all of us, it can be hard to talk about; we don’t want to say the wrong thing, because this subject is such a live wire for people. This is complicated stuff, and I'm not going to pretend I have all the answers. But I do have some thoughts after talking with neighbors and spending a lot of time thinking about this, and listening to many of you, and other people working on aspects of these problems.
First, let me just say: Davis Square should be the beating heart of our city. I've been coming here since I was in middle school in the early 90s, and watching what's happening now genuinely breaks my heart. The boarded-up storefronts, the parents telling their kids not to go to Davis alone or after dark, friends taking cabs instead of walking… Davis is too important to too many people for us to accept this. When I grabbed dinner at Boston Burger Company with my daughter a few months ago, staff had to kick out someone who came in ranting—and that was probably a good night. And I’ve heard of so much more destructive and alienating behavior, from shoplifting and thieves using power tools on store grating, to use of the Seven Hills port-a-potty for drug sales and prostitution, to people being followed or even attacked. That's not normal, and we shouldn't pretend it is, nor should we accept people having to worry about their safety or the safety of their families.
Here's where I think we need to start: with compassion for everyone, AND the understanding that ignoring problems is not compassion. When someone sets up a tent in a busy public square or openly uses drugs where kids can see, they're making that public space exclusive and unusable for others. I don’t want to overstate the problem; we all have to accommodate each other, and I don’t mean to conflate inconvenience with danger. But I hope we can all agree that 20 tents in Statue Park would make it completely unusable for others and make the bike path completely impassable, and would be unacceptable; 5 is less of a problem, but still a problem for the same reason, and so is 1. Saying this doesn't make you uncompassionate, it makes you honest about how shared spaces need to work.
Taking a step back… I absolutely believe our first priority should be social investment, not punishment. Housing assistance and building, mental health care, social outreach, job training and retention, and youth programs are where we prevent crises before they happen. This approach is not just morally right; it's practical, because every dollar spent on prevention goes way, way farther than a dollar spent on response.
With that said, I also think policing has a legitimate, and crucial, role to play. For many years I’ve heard from vulnerable residents, especially women, people of color, and seniors, that they want professional, reliable police presence, and for police to show up quickly when they call for help. When police come, they want them to act as public servants, to act with patience and courtesy and not to pigeonhole some people as “to be protected” while others are “to be protected from”. People also want officers out of their cars, walking through neighborhoods where violence occurs. Both things can be true: people want less criminalization AND they want to feel protected from harm, both before harm happens and after.
Returning to the specific situation in Davis, I think we need trained outreach workers and social workers as first responders, and not to start by sending in police. Our unarmed responders should be approaching people, explaining rules, offering help, and connecting folks to programs. But we have to understand that often, people will refuse help and refuse to cooperate, and continue behavior that endangers others. At some point, if someone insists on excluding others from public space or threatening people, the city has to act. Sometimes that means police involvement, even if they're not the first ones there.
About that, I'm curious about something: Apparently we have two officers specifically assigned to Ward 6, but I almost never see police walking around Davis on foot. I’m curious about what's going on there? Are they constantly getting pulled away for calls? Are they walking around when I'm not there? I genuinely don't know, and I think that gap between what the city says and what residents experience needs examining (on the frequency of cleaning and trash barrels being emptied, too). I’ve learned some things too from talking to our Somerville Police Department staff about which situations allow them to search someone who is probably carrying a weapon, or probably dealing drugs, and which do not. It’s good that we have a high evidence standard for this to prevent police harassment and profiling. And, I think it would be good for the few people who do repeatedly engage in violence, sell drugs and threaten others to know that this won’t be tolerated, and will lead to having weapons and drugs they’re carrying seized, and arrest if that’s appropriate.
But most people who come to Davis high, or sleep outside in Davis, do not fit that description. We desperately need dedicated street-level outreach teams working daily, coordinating between health services and city staff. These folks should have crisis response training, mental health first aid training, and ideally include people with lived experience who can connect authentically. We also need a coordinator for homeless services in City Hall, something that I’ve heard people working with unhoused folks ask for specifically, and that many other cities Somerville’s size have.
And we do need to think about the institutional resources that can help with the underlying problems. I know it’s frustrating to hear politicians wave in the direction of Quincy and say this is someone else’s fault, but it really does help the whole region when we have multiple high-quality facilities with capacity to help people. Massachusetts has moved away from this for decades, and that’s a huge part of why there is so much street-level suffering. But meanwhile, Somerville doesn’t have shelter beds, and we need to look at what it would take, in terms of using city land and zoning, to allow us to do more to provide a place for people to go that isn’t on the street.
As other people have pointed out, homelessness and drug addiction aren’t the same problem, even if they interact and overlap. When we cite drug treatment as a solution, we need to acknowledge that many people struggling with addiction aren't seeking treatment and will reject offers. That's just reality. We still need to offer help, repeatedly and compassionately, but we can't let public spaces become unusable while we wait for someone to accept help they don't want. I know the overdose prevention site idea has lost a lot of momentum, and it’s something that no residents are going to want near them. But it’s worth considering that creating one could pull away some of the open, public use of hard drugs. And even more importantly, worldwide, no one has ever died in one of those facilities, which is remarkable; whereas multiple people have died of overdoses in public places in Somerville in the past few years.
Again, I'm approaching this as someone who doesn't have all the answers. I've chatted a bit with folks who hang out in Davis, and are probably often high, but I don't really know what brought most of these folks to the place they’re at. I’m trying to hold close the fact that these people are part of our community. I also don't personally know what it's like to be targeted for mugging or harassment, and I’m trying to keep that in mind as I hear people tell of experiencing real fear and sometimes violence. I'm trying to approach this with curiosity and humility while being clear that there is a real problem we need to address.
All of us need to follow shared rules that keep public spaces safe and welcoming for everyone. I think we can, and must, take that seriously without being harsh or wishing anyone harm.
mem...@gmail.com
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Davis Square Neighborhood Council · https://DavisSquareNC.org · https://linktr.ee/DavisSquareNC
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Brendan Ritter
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Davis Square Neighborhood Council · https://DavisSquareNC.org · https://linktr.ee/DavisSquareNC
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Kathy Partridge
On Oct 27, 2025, at 8:51 AM, 'Christopher Beland' via Davis Square Neighborhood Council <daviss...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
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Davis Square Neighborhood Council · https://DavisSquareNC.org · https://linktr.ee/DavisSquareNC
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<Strezo_ Davis Square Questionnaire.pdf><Response from Emily Hardt.pdf>
Susann L Wilkinson
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