Public housing has its own issues and always has. While it’s nice to have a roof over your head, very often the people who need it most are also the ones who are victimized the most when they get into a “project” or subsidized housing. The underachievers and ne’er do wells of their families and acquaintance often appear, move in and stick like leeches for the duration.
The rightful tenant may be too old, too weak, too infirm to object, too frightened by threats, or part of the problem. In some cases, a non-offending resident is evicted because of the acts of her unauthorized fellow residents.
A decades old study of a Boston housing project found that reported crimes in the project itself represented only a small proportion of the overall crime, and the numbers were pretty gruesome – like, almost every other household was affected.
THE STUDY CONCLUDED THAT REPORTED CRIMES IN THE PROJECT REPRESENTED ONLY A SMALL PROPORTION OF ALL CRIMES THAT OCCURRED THERE. THE MOST FREQUENT AND SERIOUS CRIMES WERE BURGLARY (433 PER 1,000 HOUSEHOLDS), VANDALISM, ARSON, AND MALICIOUS DAMAGE. A SIGNIFICANT PROPORTION OF THE OFFENSES WERE COMMITTED BY YOUTHS IN THE PROJECT, ESPECIALLY FROM THE AGES 12 THROUGH 16…
Youths and gangs and drugs. Those are the things we would see when 60 Minutes still did real investigative journalism and would air an exposé on the graft or crime in a New York project.
Crime rates fluctuate, the drugs they fancy shift, and sometimes the crimes are exposed completely by accident. And when you read about those nowadays – my, goodness. How the crimes and times have changed.
Earlier this week, David wrote about the chances of this particular incident being memory holed.
I kind of wanted to take a look at how it was shaking out myself.
This past Saturday morning, the Boston Fire Department got a routine emergency call for a man in cardiac arrest. They hopped into their vehicles, and took off to the address, which was a housing project run by the city.
That was the last routine thing about it.
…“This is sickening,” said At-Large City Councilor Michael Flaherty. “I was informed by people at the scene that there were drugs, alcohol, sex toys all around the apartment as well as a dead body on the floor.”
Well. Yes. For starters.
…“The apartment was in extremely unsanitary conditions. Approximately 6 adults, who appeared to be males, were seen in the apartment,” they wrote, saying they subsequently found “four children in the back bedroom being hidden by an adult male from first responders.”
According to the incident report the children ranged from ages 5 to 10.
“All of the adult parties were being uncooperative and did not provide helpful information. All adults present denied having children inside the apartment,” they wrote.
Well…huh. Firefighters didn’t mess around – they rarely do when children are in squalid conditions, less mind whatever sort of hell this was turning out to be. They filed a 51A, which is the abuse and neglect mechanism to get the state’s Department of Children and Families involved.
And that weird little line again? What did the report mean by “appeared” to be mal…OH.
…Flaherty, Public Safety chairman on the council, told the Herald Monday night the dead body found on the floor was “from an apparent overdose” and that “a man wearing a wig claiming to be the father” of the kids was found in a back bedroom.
Multiple sources tell the Herald some of the adults were dressed as women when first responders arrived at the scene.
While the Boston Herald has been all over it, the Boston Globe…not so much. Forget the front page – even the search plugged with repeated, myriad specific terms can’t produce a story.
Has anything happened since?
In the past few days, DCF has taken the children, but there are still boatloads of unanswered questions. And in classic fashion, the other residents aren’t talking.
A Boston city councilor is calling for answers after children were found inside a public housing apartment where an adult died that has been described to her as a house of horrors.
…“A lot of drug paraphernalia and sex toys all around and then one of the firefighters said that they heard a cry for help,” said Murphy. “That there were four children in the back room, and I am hearing that the adults in the apartment were not wanting first responders to go back when they heard kids crying for help, so that is very disturbing to me.”
…The Department of Children and Families said in a statement to Boston 25, “The Department of Children and Families has taken custody of the children who live in the home.”
Neighbors said they know the apartment and that something happened over the weekend but they didn’t want to talk about it.
I have no patience with the members of a community who moan and groan and protest crime, yet DO NOTHING when CRIME happens, especially something this God awful. They’re always all about “The children!” and then hang children out to dry.
It’s disgusting.
Were these kids being trafficked? DCF has yet to straighten out who they even legally belong to. So that’s makes trafficking a very real possibility, and residents “don’t want to talk about it”?! That’s not how this works.
That same city councilor, Erin Murphy, has filed what is sure to be an unwelcome motion to have the issue addressed at the next council meeting. She wants to know exactly what the housing authority is doing and how it does it.
A member of the Boston City Council wants the Housing Authority to explain exactly what happened at the Mary Ellen McCormack Housing complex, where four children were allegedly found hidden in the back room of an apartment filled with “alcohol, drugs, sex toys” and a dead person.
…Murphy’s order, which she also shared with the Herald, explains that following Saturday’s emergency response, after which the Fire Department apparently reported their concern for the children’s welfare to the state Department of Children & Families, the city Council needs to hear from the Housing Authority on both how they are conducting inspections of public housing units and how they account for dependent children there.
The order directs an appropriate committee of the council to hear from officials in order to “assess the Department’s response procedures and protocols relating to public safety in BHA units, particularly the safety of children in BHA housing.”
City Council President Ed Flynn and At-Large Boston City Councilor Michael Flaherty will apparently back the move to hold a hearing, which the order suggests representatives from Mayor Michelle Wu’s office, BHA Administrator Kenzie Bok, BHA Police Chief Shumeane Benford, and interested members of the public should attend.
I haven’t been able to find a statement from Mayor Wu. I guess she’s been too busy to address it, kind of like the Boston Globe’s been too busy too cover it. Their front page has more important stuff – submersibles, basketball, Feinstein and cutting edge op-eds.
Hunter Biden shows he isn’t above the rule of law
For a young voter like me, that is inspiring.
They’re definitely all about “for the children.”
Just not those children.
Read the full article here
