City officials received an immediate surge of public resistance to a proposal to locate a fourth shelter in the South End, regardless of assurances of nonpermanence that stakeholders view with suspicion at best.

The need for more beds has sprung up ahead of a planned crackdown on Atkinson Street, where officials say they will finally eliminate tents and ramp up drug trafficking enforcement. That will, however, leave around 30 people who are far into the process of getting housing but will nevertheless have no place to stay.

Planners have settled on 725 Massachusetts Avenue as the spot for a new, allegedly temporary space for them to stay until they find permanent shelter. The spot is tucked into the heart of the Boston Medical Center (BMC) and would not on-site tolerate drug use or weapons, employing one security guard within and two without to dissuade infraction.

That’s unfortunately where officials’ history of policy reversals catches up to them. The plan strikes many as almost exactly the same as the Roundhouse shelter, a wildly divisive program initially pitched as a temporary winter shelter that ended up providing clinical services and housing next to the drug market for years.

Some local stakeholders say that the Roundhouse not only failed to noticeably affect the encampment but actively made things worse by keeping former addicts next to the state’s largest open-air drug market. It also further centralized services there, something the city officials seem to oppose right up until the moment they suggest more shelters nearby.

Security was a constant complaint with the Roundhouse, and comments at an August 22 meeting of the South End Working Group aren’t likely to assuage fears that the new shelter would be more of the same. City officials specifically referenced consulting BMC, who managed the Roundhouse during its controversial run, on how to organize security for the new shelter.

There were no comments at the working group meeting supporting the shelter except those from city officials. John Moran, the state representative for the 9th Suffolk District, said he would fervently oppose any effort to locate more services in the South End.

“We have no doubt that you want to do the right thing for the city, but I want to be really clear. The South End already has three shelters. I will not allow a fourth shelter to happen here,” he said. “I called Pine Street Inn yesterday and you hadn’t even contacted them. Don’t tell me you’ve been calling all around the city looking for solutions.”

“We’ve heard all this before, the exact same story over and over again, and what we got was Mass and Cass and Atkinson Street back again. Locating more housing units around Mass and Cass doesn’t work,” said Steve Fox, head of the South End Forum. “The Roundhouse was not a success, it actually contributed to the nexus of activity at Mass and Cass today. There’s a lot of skepticism in this community of ‘temporary’ shelters. More than skepticism.”

Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, the executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission, did contest the claim that the city had not been in contact with Pine Street Inn, saying they’d “been in touch with Pine Street frequently.”

She and other officials emphasized they’ve been searching for an alternative for weeks, and a 30-bed shelter on Massachusetts Avenue is the only viable option.

The meeting ended with Moran repeatedly and unsuccessfully pressing Ojikutu to commit to finding the beds elsewhere. Several alternatives were proposed, including distributing the extra beds throughout existing shelters or delaying the crackdown several months until the Recover Boston plan has a chance to give people a place to go, but officials seemed resigned to using Massachusetts Avenue.

“I’m happy to talk further. Like I said, we’ve evaluated the spaces that are available and worked for the last few weeks to get this ready, but I’m always ready to talk more. You’re important collaborators,” said Ojikutu.