Messy tents line the streets. Bottles, plastic bags, and all kinds of trash fly in the breeze. People with shabby clothes wander and sit. It is Boston’s “Methadone Mile,” an area that is only a few miles away from the city’s downtown and Financial District. The epicenter of Boston’s opioid crisis and homelessness earned its nickname due to the concentration of service providers, who usually incorporate methadone into treatments of drug addiction. For years, the area has attracted a large number of homeless and addicted people, especially after the closure of Boston’s Long Island treatment facility in 2014. Shelter and service shutdowns caused by the pandemic have been deteriorating the situation around Methadone Mile, which was also nicknamed “Mass and Cass” because it is close to the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Blvd. The Greater Boston Food Bank is located right next to the “tent city.” Carol Tienken, …
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