That the City Manager is requested to coordinate with the Community Safety Department, the Cambridge Police Department, and other relevant parties to ensure that the overnight use of the garden area between St. James Episcopal Church and the Beech Street condos is actively monitored

O-3 FIRST IN COUNCIL August 4, 2025 City of Cambridge MAYOR SIMMONS COUNCILLOR TONER WHEREAS: There has been a longstanding and worsening set of concerns stemming from the nightly congregation of unhoused individuals on the front porch and garden areas between St. James Episcopal Church and the Beech Street condominiums along Massachusetts Avenue; and WHEREAS: Members of that condominium community have consistently reported significant and repeated overnight disturbances, including overnight occupancy, increased drug use and transactions, noise, and unsafe conditions in both the porch and garden areas; and WHEREAS: The porch area is church-owned property, and St. James Episcopal Church has expressed a strong commitment to its mission of offering sanctuary to those in need, including permitting unhoused individuals to seek rest overnight in this space – yet there are concerns that without proper oversight, members of the public may also utilize the garden space during those hours; and WHEREAS: The garden area adjacent to the property is considered condominium-owned open space that is open to the public only between sunrise and sunset and is explicitly off- limits at night — yet it has become a site of increasing overnight occupation and problematic activity; and WHEREAS: The Cambridge Police Department has indicated that enforcement in and around private property—particularly faith-based spaces—requires careful coordination, and that the current legal thresholds limit intervention absent specific encampment criteria or violations of trespass law; and WHEREAS: Mediation efforts are scheduled between the church and the condominium association regarding use of the porch area, yet the question of how the City and the church will address enforcement in the garden area remains unresolved; now therefore be it ORDERED: That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to coordinate with the Community Safety Department, the Cambridge Police Department, and other relevant parties to ensure that the overnight use of the garden area between St. James Episcopal Church and the Beech Street condos is actively monitored and that appropriate actions are taken in such a way that balances public safety considerations with the humanitarian values that guide our city; and be it further ORDERED: That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to report back to the City Council with an outline of what additional enforcement tools may be needed to allow the City to better respond to this matter, and to similar situations involving overlapping public- private spaces where significant health and safety concerns are being raised; and be it further

ORDERED: That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to report back to the City Council on this matter no later than October 1, 2025.