Fully agreed.
Enough is enough !!!

There is some menacing going on in the space between the library (now open) and the high school as well as the tents and piles of belongings that are not in carts (not quickly moveable).

1. where are homeless people *supposed* to go when they need a toilet (not even to speak of washing)???
2. the comments here are weird: "'belongings that are not in carts" (are they supposed to endlessly walk the earth or something?
"enough is enough" - well, yes - except like other problems, if you haven't DONE anything to address the problem...again,
WHERE ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO GO?
"away" is not an answer, nor is "not here".
Answer completely, show your work.
They're still human beings, a little recognition of that would go a long way.

That said, SURE, obviously having a growing encampment in *any* location in an already crowded city is problematic.
but just saying "ZOMG THINK OF THE CHILDREN" isn't a constructive solution. And I *guarantee you* that the high school age kids already know, and many probably have well-informed opinions on, the homelessness crisis, both in general and specifically the people in our neighborhood.
Also? Those kids are watching YOU and how you adults all handle this situation. Many are probably watching these boards and again, they're not 5, theyre 15-18.
Try to act like adults.

Here, I'll go first!
Suggestion for City Hall to consider:
Since the homeless population briefly had a place to shelter in the facility adjacent to the HS, and then abruptly was cast out of it, I'm sure your team have information about how well that worked. What worked, what didn't, what were the ways it didn't work and could be improved.
It is *already* an established fact (for a long list of reasons) that the homeless actively avoid shelters for valid reasons. Is there a reason we don't have and couldn't address the problem by having some kind of daytime only walk-in center? I mean, these folks often already disperse into wooded areas to camp at night - the ones near CRLS are by far the *exception* not the rule. Walk-in centers work in other cities, and I know of one in Vermont that works very well: office help for trying to get jobs and get reintegrated, laundry facilities, a shower you can sign up for (similar to a truck stop, in a lot of ways). Funding: there are in fact orgs that would help fund such a thing. This doesn't have to be a drain on existing budget.

There. See how that works?

Obviously will be a combination of the city providing more services (tough in urban area like Harvard Square) and also making camping out on public property and other violations (solicitation for money, trash, no masks, blocking entrances to public building) less attractive than it is today.
The reasons people can't camp out in the yard of the Library / High School are not just for those currently homeless, even though the impact is disparate to them. Plenty of young people visiting their friends at Harvard would love a free place to stay now and then.

City Hall – DR assigned this issue to Cambridge Public Schools

Margaret,

Relax your caps lock key. As the War Memorial shelter is mere steps away from the area they are turning into skid row, they might try going there to sleep and defecate. Just a thought. Judging by the sharps container that has been behind a police SUV on Ellery Street much of the summer, they may even been able to find a safer place to dispose of needles. I’m not sure if they can drink from and discard open containers in the shelter, but them’s the breaks.

Margaret,

You need to get back down to Earth and realize you are living in the real world !

Of course these people are human beings. What do you mean ? I talk to them at least once a day and most of them are nice people.

Nothing against them of course, but the Cambridge taxpayers want the City to take care of these key issues, which it is not doing right now.

Wouldn't this be a great use of the $500,000 the City wants to spend in this useless Participatory Budgeting thing ?

@ Anonymous: No.

@ Trowbridge Street "Neighbor" -- it doesn't get much more real than living on the streets and having people who can afford to own million dollar homes complaining about your existence all the time.
Also, you do not, and I cannot emphasize this enough, you do not speak for all "the Cambridge Taxpayers" --- I didn't elect you, you're just some guy on the internet.

as for $500,000 being useless, if you don't want it, I'm sure I can put it to good use.
Take your lazy cynicism home and stew on it, we don't need it here, it doesn't solve problems.

also, the comment someone made about "plenty of young people visiting their friends at Harvard would love a free place to stay" --- I'm really trying to wrap my head around the idea that teenage/20-somethings who would hang around the kids who can afford to attend Harvard, deigning to sleep in a tent in a park. They tend to like things like running water and locked doors. They might do it once, but never again. I'm going with "no" but you get points for imagination.

Odd the number $500k came up, you can't even buy a condo for that anymore. It sounds like it's OK with Margaret if you are pay for rent or mortgage, pay taxes and still be forced to live next to a homeless encampment.

@ Margaret

I just speak for myself of course but reading the comments, quite a lot of Cambridge taxpayers apparently share my thoughts.

Also just to clarify, I never wrote that $500,000 were useless, I just wrote about this contest the City of Cambridge sets up every year to define how to use this huge amount of money. I will simply suggest that this year this money be used to clean and repair our streets and take care of key issues such as the one we have been writing about for a few days.

Peace Margaret and believe me, I am convinced that we both want to live in a better Cambridge.

the city had a "perfect place" to put a "temporary" shelter at the war memorial building. The result has been the degradation of the neighborhood. No one cannot feel for anyone that has lost their housing. The situation is there is a significant number of these people that do not now nor ever will enter into any part of our society. Unless you consider our society to be addled drug or alcohol addicted sex offending as a basic right.
I do not want to have to step over the human feces that are left behind. Nor do I want to have to continually call the police because known level 3 see offender has been brought into out neighborhood by the city.
I do not want to listen to the ravings and general yelling that has been and is still going on from the shelter that is NEVER leaving this neighborhood. The city is moving it next month to Spaulding.
People stood up and complained about the terrible noise that the heating system makes at the war memorial building.
we should all complain about the terrible way our neighborhood is bring treated.

I just attempted to post to this string and was blocked. i would like to know why?

Given the proximity to a school, known sex offenders of any level should not be able to "live" there, particularly when people that are recently homeless due to COVID and the economy are the core focus of "temporary" efforts. Those people should be the first ones to get the limited amount of help that is funded/available.

As for the other issues, the City should always know who is on the property and raise the standards for admission (no outstanding warrants, no convictions for violent or sex offenses are two obvious checks). If the facility needs to function like a minimum security prison, many things need to change.

This thread is like watching a fire in a warehouse that stores oxygenators improperly: it just keeps self-feeding on its own, resisting all efforts to put it out.
Don’t let facts get in the way guys, you’re clearly the only voices that matter. /sarcasm-font

Thank you for reporting your concern to City of Cambridge via Commonwealth Connect. We have reviewed the information you provided our staff and will be investigating this issue further.