Members of the Fields Corner Civic Association (FCCA) were quick to bring up the topic of increasing homelessness and drug use in the area at the meeting after several months of burgeoning concerns – particularly in light of a drug overdose death in a parking lot on Adams Street the day they met.

Hiep Chu said neighbors and businesses are noticing more vagrancy, homelessness, drug use, and, sometimes, encampments in the entrances to businesses.

“There are a couple of corners I noticed myself,” he said. “The whole issue with Mass. and Cass; people here are concerned those people will come to our neighborhood and cause similar problems. The drug overdose death was a really concern for everybody.”

According to Boston Police, around 1 p.m. officers responded to a parking lot across from 159 Adams St. Upon arrival, police, EMTs, and firefighters were directed by a member of Dorchester House Health Center to a known male in the parking lot. He was slouched over and unresponsive and pronounced dead at the scene.

That was followed up by what could have been a double overdose death on Thursday afternoon around 2 p.m. on Columbia Road near Grove Hall. In that incident, two people were found unresponsive in their car for what was believed to be an overdose. However, BPD officials said that hadn’t been determined and at this point it’s possible that drugs were not involved.

On Sunday, a man was found dead in a park in the 300 block of Seaver Street (between Blue Hill Avenue and Columbia Road) of an apparent overdose. Neighbors at the scene indicated they were informed it was a drug-related death in the park, but BPD said that hasn’t officially been determined yet.

For Chu and FCCA, the problems with homelessness and drug-use have popped up in several hot spots around Fields Corner, including behind businesses and restaurants, and at the AutoZone and 7/11 properties. He also said there have been issues at the City parking lot on Adams Street, and on Lincoln Street near the Kit Clark Center. 

“Business people in Fields Corner have told me there is an increase of people hanging around their properties,” he said. “These are the types of things we will probably be talking about more and we’ll be more aware of it in the future, too.”