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LOWELL — During last Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Councilor Corey Belanger called the city’s Back Central neighborhood a “mini Mass and Cass,” referring to the area of Boston plagued by the same homeless, drug and crime crisis that has been growing for several years in Lowell’s poorest neighborhood.
“On the back of Charles Street … the sidewalk was completely overrun, tents on the sidewalk, open-air drug use going on,” he said. “We need help.”
Between March and September, the Lowell Police Department recorded a staggering 10,000 police dispatch entries in the densely populated neighborhood, which is roughly bounded by Appleton Street to the north, Chambers Street to the south, Thorndike Street to the west and Lawrence Street to the east.
The police calls resulted in more than 18,000 officer call-offs, reflecting the significant resources required to manage incidents in this area. During this same period, 606 arrests were made — or on average, 100 per month — with 117 individuals arrested two or more times, and 20 individuals arrested five or more times.
Councilors Corey Robinson and Erik Gitschier’s motion requested City Manager Tom Golden have a conversation between the council and key stakeholders centered around “challenges with our transient community.”
Golden said he was trying to “work toward a solution” on what he described as a “revolving door” of people being arrested by the police only to be released back out on the streets by the judges at Lowell District Court.
“There’s a lot going on here,” he said. “I can report back.”
But councilors, while praising the city’s policing and social outreach efforts, were exasperated by the lack of coordination between the courts, state-level departments and other social and legislative agencies.
“We need everybody together to help on this, otherwise we’re just going to spin our tires,” Gitschier said. “Send them down to the courthouse, they’re going to come right out of the courthouse and these numbers are just going to continue to escalate and escalate and no one really gets help. And that’s the sad part — people are not getting help.”
Although not exclusively a homeless problem, based on figures released by the LPD and the Office of Homeless Initiatives, which is under the purview of the Department of Health and Human Services, the rise in arrests of homeless people tracked with the rise in homelessness.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines individuals as homeless if they lack a “fixed, regular and adequate nighttime address.” Last winter’s federally mandated point-in-time count, conducted during the early morning hours of Jan. 30, reported 250 homeless people in Lowell.
Two hundred were sheltered through Community Teamwork Inc.’s hotel program in Chelmsford, and in both regular and emergency beds provided through the Lowell Transitional Living Center on Middlesex Street in Downtown Lowell. There were 50 unsheltered people living outdoors.
Those unsheltered people were mostly living in squalid encampments scattered throughout the city, including South Common Park, a 22.5-acre public green space in the city’s Back Central neighborhood.
The City Council passed an ordinance in November 2024 making it unlawful to camp on public property in the city of Lowell. The civil ordinance is enforceable through the LPD, and the city sanctioned so-called “sweeps” of numerous homeless encampments, including South Common.
In early October, one person was killed and another person hospitalized after a garbage truck backed over them on Spring Street. Witnesses said the two homeless individuals had been sleeping on the narrow, alley-like street after they had been repeatedly told to leave other parts of the city, most recently South Common.
But even homeless people with an emergency bed at night become unsheltered during the day when the LTLC, the largest adult emergency shelter north of Boston, asks its clients to leave the premises.
According to the LPD, complaints about trespassing increased from 519 complaints in 2021 to 1,369 complaints in 2024, a more than 150% increase.
The shelter clients generally congregate in the Jackson Street, Appleton Street, Middlesex Street, Summer Street, and Gorham Street corridors.
“These areas have experienced a high concentration of transient individuals, which has led to recurring public safety and quality-of-life issues,” Assistant City Manger Shawn Machado said in the motion response dated Oct. 21.
Councilor Vesna Nuon suggested that the task force approach the city took to address gang violence in the city almost 20 years ago may be a guide to Lowell’s current crisis.
“When we had a gang issue in the city, the juvenile court judge and others participated in this,” Nuon said. “The [District Attorney] the [Middlesex] Sheriff’s Office, [Department of Children and Families] and all those entries, joined in. The court plays an important role in this.”
Machado’s motion response noted that the city’s Community Opioid Outreach Program had been active in the neighborhood, offering outreach and services to individuals in need.
“Despite their daily efforts, there remains a significant number of individuals who decline the services offered,” Machado’s motion response said. “This underscores the complexity of the issue and the need for a more comprehensive, multi-agency approach to address the underlying causes of chronic homelessness, substance use, and mental health challenges.”
Machado said Golden will extend invitations to a representative from Sheriff Peter Koutoujian’s office, leadership from the LPD, district court judges serving the Lowell area, an a representative from the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office.
“The goal of this discussion is to explore collaborative strategies that address the root causes of recidivism, improve outcomes for individuals experiencing homelessness or substance use disorders, and enhance public safety for all residents and businesses,” Machado said.
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Melanie Gilbert
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