Somerville grapples with homeless population in Davis Square

SOMERVILLE — There have long been homeless people in Davis Square. But this summer, neighbors with and without homes agree, something was different.

A rise in unsheltered homelessness here, mainly in two parks near the MBTA stop, was hard to ignore, as were reports of open drug use and drug dealing, discarded needles, and violence — notably, two back-to-back stabbings in September in which four people were injured. Some neighbors felt newly uneasy running errands after dark or about the growing crowd of people injecting drugs near two day cares.

As the state’s shelter system overflows and amid a statewide spike in homelessness, the issue has fueled a roiling debate among residents of this progressive city about how to address the sudden surge in the heart of a busy neighborhood without simply pushing a vulnerable population elsewhere.

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People who’ve spent time in Davis Square, including those who’ve been unhoused themselves, have noticed the shift.

“Big change,” said Peter Clancy, 63, who said he’s been homeless on and off for 30 years, mostly in Davis, and still hangs out here despite moving to an apartment three years ago. He rested his legs by leaning up against a concrete stoop. “New crowd of people, not here for good.”

Many neighbors say the same. “It’s not the same vibe,” said Gail, 73, who lives down the street from Statue Park and didn’t want her last name published because she worried what some neighbors might say about her comments. “It doesn’t feel right,” she said, standing on the sidewalk.

She said she has been confronted many times walking past the park by people asking for money or in a state of distress. “I don’t go near this area at all anymore,” she said.

Her feelings were echoed Wednesday at a public meeting at a local Baptist church, where the city’s mayor and police addressed the sudden rise in homelessness to a packed crowd.

“This is a family city,” said one woman who like many others didn’t share her name. “How are we supposed to raise children in Davis Square?” Another called for for a “zero tolerance” policy for opioids.

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Others urged the city to resist calls for a police crackdown. “They’re sick. They have an addiction they can’t control,” said one man, who said he was a parent of a child in a day care near the parks. “If we just increase the police presence and chase them to another neighborhood, they are still going to be sick.”

In January, the city’s annual homeless census found there were 26 unsheltered homeless people in the city, more than there had been for at least the last eight years. A year before that, the city counted 15 unsheltered homeless people.

This summer, more homeless people came, officials said, though an official count has not been conducted.

In the Davis Square area, there were theories as to why more people were relocating here.

“Homelessness just moves along the Red Line,” said Hannah O’Halloran, director of homeless services for the Somerville Homeless Coalition, who has been spending more time in the square lately and chatting with people, with an eye toward helping them find housing, health care, or drug treatment through the nearby outreach center. “Boston dismantles their encampments, and people move to Central Square. Central Square tears down [a homeless gathering spot] ... and they stop letting people stay in ‘the pit’ in Harvard Square, so it just moves down. Eventually it’ll move to Alewife, and then those camps will get taken down and it’ll work its way back.”

For some who have experienced homelessness, Davis has been a longtime gathering place, even for those who now have housing. Most of the handful of people interviewed by the Globe Wednesday morning were no longer unhoused, but still came to the square to socialize and avail themselves of services, particularly from the coalition, which has been working there nearly 40 years.

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For Mohamed Mohamed, 42, Statue Park has been home since June, when he lost his car, where he’d been living while working for the food delivery company DoorDash, and had nowhere else to go. It came after a series of bad breaks, he said.

“Wife, gone. House, gone. Business, gone. Job, gone. Then the car, gone,” Mohamed said.

He came at what turned out to be a tumultuous time for the square, which he surveys daily from a camping chair, with more people sleeping in more places than is typical for the neighborhood. He said he spent much of his time breaking up fights that can erupt at a moment’s notice.

“I’m here 24 hours a day, and it’s full of violence,” he said. “I’ve seen things I can’t believe.”

More officers have patrolled Seven Hills Park and Statue Park in recent weeks, and there have been 13 arrests there since August.

The patrols have come amid accusations that law enforcement has been too lenient on drug use in the parks, turning Davis into a magnet.

“What I see is a scene is forming, where it’s just known that this is a place you can go and do drugs and hang out — and no one’s going to stop you from doing anything,” said Matthew McLaughlin, a city councilor who has backed increased police patrols. “We didn’t used to have open drug use and people selling drugs on the street corner. That’s something I’ve never seen in Somerville. It just became the place to be.”

Official Somerville police policy, backed in a 2021 resolution from city councilors, calls not for arrest but for “diversion” in drug-possession cases.

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Mayor Katjana Ballantyne in an email said she supports the city’s focus on “treatment rather than punishment,” but also that she wanted police to prevent “open drug use in public spaces.” In addition to police patrols, the city has increased outreach in the parks to connect people with services.

“This is not about being lenient; it’s about being effective,” she said.

Police Chief Shumeane Benford, who was sworn in last month, said his philosophy is that homelessness and addiction can’t be solved by police alone, nor by the kinds of wholesale sweeps of encampments that have characterized responses in other cities.

“We’re certainly not going to arrest our way out of it,” Benford said in a recent interview. “It has to be a balanced approach.”

It’s not always easy to both enforce the law with compassion, said City Councilor Lance Davis, whose ward includes Davis Square, but he believes Somerville is doing it.

“We’ve seen a stronger response over the past few weeks, but my hope is that this is the appropriate response,” Davis said. “Somewhere in between what we had in mid-August, and just arresting everybody or chasing them off to Arlington. That isn’t a solution.”

Spencer Buell can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @SpencerBuell.