The situation at Mass and Cass has deteriorated to the point the City Council is taking action, approving an order for a hearing in the near future.

City Councilors Ed Flynn, Tania Fernandes Anderson and Henry Santana cosponsored the measure in a general council meeting on August 7.

It was approved unanimously and now heads to the committee on public safety and criminal justice, though no date was directly set in the legislation.

Councilors John Fitzgerald, Julia Mejia, Erin Murphy and Ruthzee Louijeune all also spoke in favor of the measure, the general consensus being that not only has there been a drastic resurgence in the drug market around Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue, but it’s in fact also spread further than before due to last November’s tent crackdown.

“Yes, the tents have gone down on Atkinson Street, but that doesn’t mean the problem went away,” said Flynn. “Businesses and residents are calling councilors up every day. Just recently I talked to many people in the Downtown who told me that they’ve never seen the Common as bad as it is right now.”

Flynn repeated his calls for an increase in police hiring, something the BPD has struggled with in recent years. He also requested support for both new drug treatment specialists and a new needle cleanup program. The last needle bounty program ended when federal funds ran out and was never replaced despite the original program offering to meet the new lower budget.

Councilor Fernandes Anderson also noted the efforts made by the Newmarket Business Improvement District’s back to work street cleaning and recovery program, though it isn’t close to the scale of the original bounty system and isn’t trying to replace it.

Fernandes Anderson said she and Council President Louijeune are working on their own plan for Nubian Square. While she said the announcement at this point is “premature” and didn’t offer details, she did say it was based on the model of Lisbon, Portugal, a nation known for its emphasis on decriminalization and rehabilitation.

“I’ve spent years working in women's shelter programs and with dual diagnosis clients.

I have personal and professional experience witnessing folks going in and out of treatment. This issue is near and dear to my heart. I’ve lost clients to suicide, overdose, rape. But I also supported the tent removal and began a series of resident listening sessions,” she said. “This deserves a conversation about what we can do immediately.”

Fernandes Anderson also mentioned recent personnel gains by the city, apparently told by Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) head Dr. Bisola Ojikutu that the commission is hiring a new administrator and new medical practitioners.

The BPHC declined to give more details on the topic, saying the Mayor’s Office is in charge of new hiring.

Conspicuously lacking in all this are any solid plans to begin addressing the crisis. Ojikutu acknowledged back in June that the encampment crackdown and shelter surge hadn’t eliminated street homelessness, calling for “new solutions.” Even now, however, city government still seems to be in the early stages of formulating a new plan.

In terms of large-scale drug rehabilitation plans, the only relief on the horizon is the reopening of the shuttered Long Island campus. While litigation and licensing for the bridge are continuing even optimistic projections put that years away.

South End stakeholders proposed an interim recovery campus in Widett Circle, an idea shot down by state government. City officials have expressed tenuous support for an alternative location, but none have been proposed yet.