The Boston Globe
SALEM — The encampment sprang up nearly a year ago on the manicured Harbor Walk, next to a playground, just across the South River from a brewery, in the heart of downtown.
It was just a few tents at first, but now up to two dozen people occupy a narrow stretch of city land adjacent to a Wendy’s parking lot. Seemingly every day has been worse than the last, for the city and the people in the camp: Piles of trash and needles are strewn about, rat holes are everywhere, and there is an overwhelming stench of urine and feces.
Facing complaints from residents and businesses, the City Council is developing an ordinance, based on the one used in Boston to dismantle the massive Mass. and Cass encampment last fall, that would ban camping in Salem — but only if the city has a place to put the occupants.
“It’s had an undeniable impact on the surrounding community, and it’s been a significant impact on city resources,” Mayor Dominick Pangallo said. “Police. Fire. Medical response. Public works for cleanup on the regular. But most importantly, it’s been bad for the people who live there.”
Cities in the region and around the country are grappling with homelessness that has been linked to the overlapping crises of addiction and lack of affordable housing.
In Boston, the city banned tent cities and cleared out Mass. and Cass in November, beginning a collaborative effort to connect people struggling with mental health and substance use problems with social services. Most of those living at the sprawling, crime-ridden encampment were moved to temporary housing, though many dispersed to other, less-visible camps and became more difficult for social workers to reach. Some homeless advocates say the effort failed to address the root problems and the region still has a severe shortage of supportive housing.
On Monday, the Supreme Court considered whether banning homeless people from sleeping outside in public spaces when shelter space is lacking amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
Having a place to move so many people, while remembering that they are still people, is not easy. But Salem’s lone homeless shelter believes it offers at least a partial solution.
Two weeks ago, Lifebridge North Shore, which has long operated the city’s 50-bed, full-every-night homeless shelter, opened an auxiliary site with another 50 beds. On the first week it was opened, 100 different people spent a night in one of the two facilities.
Jason Etheridge, director of Lifebridge, said the new shelter aims to be a “zero barrier” option with looser rules, such as allowing pets and couples. It also has a more forgivable curfew than the original facility, as well as secure places for people to store their few possessions — a known factor in keeping people on the street. Substance abuse is not allowed on-site, but “it is not a barrier for entry,” he said.
“I think this is a good first step in the process. A good portion of the solution,” Etheridge said, adding that if the ordinance passes, he thinks the auxiliary shelter would offer enough space for the encampment to be cleared. “But I’m not convinced if we find a solution for the 30 folks [at the encampment] it won’t be filled in by another 30 people who need the same help. It’s not as if it’s going to go away if we pass an ordinance. There are core issues.”
For the moment, as the one-year anniversary approaches, the encampment is running worse than ever. This area of Pickering Wharf was once a popular place for a stroll. Now, most everyone walks another way.
“We’ve put up with it for too long, and it’s out of control,” said Dan Faust, who lives across the street from the encampment and was enjoying the Harbor Walk on a recent day with his wife, Marlene, a stroll that no longer goes anywhere near the tents. “It’s been a year. I’m out of patience. It’s ridiculous. I’m sure people will call us callous, but they don’t have to live with it every day.”
“We just keep waiting and waiting for this ordinance,” Marlene Faust said. “These people have been offered everything to get them out of there — food, shelter, job training — and it hasn’t worked.”
They are not alone in their displeasure, as evidenced by another resident who pounded down the boardwalk, just past the encampment, while members of the Police Department’s Community Impact Unit were visiting the area.
“Are you kicking them out yet?” she asked as she blew past. She’d already aired her concerns to them, and those concerns are totally valid, according to Captain John Burke, who heads the unit. She lives nearby. She has a kid. She wants it gone.
“This is an old neighborhood. This is a disruption, no question. I acknowledge their frustration,” Burke said as he and three other officers checked in on the camp residents. “We’ve always had encampments, but they were in the woods, nothing like this.”
There is no dispute it has had an impact on businesses in the area. The encampment has been responsible for 203 calls for police service, 49 reports of trespassing at Wendy’s, 11 overdoses, and two active fires, according to the Salem police.
Wendy’s has erected a big fence between its parking lot and the tent city. Notch brewery has an outdoor beer garden that looks right across the water at the encampment. Neither business responded to requests for comment.
The Speedway gas station, like many of the nearby businesses, has had to shut its public bathrooms.
“They’re not all bad people,” said Rafael Pichardo, an employee at the gas station. “But all those drugs and needles and overdoses, and the stealing in here, is not a positive.”
Burke said he’d love to clear the area, fill the rat holes, throw away the trash, and plant some grass. And he’d love if there were a pill that cured mental illness and drug addiction.
But, as Mayor Pangallo has stressed, those are issues that no city can tackle on its own.
“We’re triaging and putting a bandage on a problem that has deep roots in our society. I believe everyone deserves a roof over their head, and a tent is not a roof,” he said. “But it’s extremely expensive to fund shelters and services, and there is a deep housing crisis in this state.”
Caroline Watson-Felt, a city councilor who is the liaison to the Community Impact Unit, said she knows that residents and businesses want the encampment gone.
“We need a resolution, but packing everyone up and taking them to the town line is not the appropriate response either. That’s not how we handle human beings. People want it resolved overnight, but I don’t think that’s possible. We see this cycle of folks getting in and out of services, so it will take time.”
But everyone working on the problem agrees the current situation cannot continue. “It’s untenable. We’ve seen what happens in other communities,” said Ty Hapworth, the council president. “But this ordinance puts the onus on us to have shelter and storage if we want to be able to say, ‘You can’t stay here anymore.’ ”
The council is expected to begin moving the ordinance swiftly through a city process that would require two votes, but Hapworth said the aim is to have the ordinance in place by late spring or early summer.
Chris Serres of the Globe staff contributed to this report.