Revere stands willing and ready to support individuals experiencing homelessness and drug addiction. We know this because our award-winning Substance Use Disorder Initiatives office – held up as a regional model – has served and supported 1,800 residents by connecting them to services since opening its doors in 2016. Revere also successfully served as a home to 200 people who required isolation housing during the peak of the COVID-19 crisis. The assertion that we would be unwilling to play a role in supporting a regional strategy to support those currently on Mass and Cass flies in the face of our history and our record.
We accomplished this and served people in need by making sure we planned and collaborated properly with everyone who needed to be at the table – including health care services, first responders, and city and state officials.
I am not sure which planning conversations Acting Mayor Janey referred to in her statement because simply put, they did not happen. The first time we spoke was today, and in that conversation, she was unable to identify a single additional regional partner they are working with to help address this problem.
Revere stands ready and able to support a regional plan that brings multiple mayors, the Governor, the AG, the DA, and a range of health care providers to the table to support the highest needs population in the state. What we will not accept is our much larger and more well-resourced neighbor deciding to shift their political and PR issue to another city and hoping it goes away.
