BMC to end addiction program at former Roundhouse hotel at end of July

Update: Boston and state health officials will provide additional funds to Boston Medical Center, extending the hospital's clinical services at the Roundhouse Hotel through the end of July. In a statement, the state said this "winddown" would help reduce the risk of overdose deaths and emergency department visits that an abrupt closure of the program could prompt.

Boston Medical Center will soon stop providing urgent care-style addiction services at a former hotel in the area of the city known as "Mass. and Cass."

The program at the Roundhouse Suites hotel building started early last year, as the city worked to clear out a large tent encampment in the area due to public health and safety concerns.

BMC said it will end its clinical services at the hotel by March 31 due to a lack of long-term funding. It wouldn't give further details on the funding issue.

Steve Fox chairs an umbrella organization that represents 18 neighborhood associations, called the South End Forum. He expressed relief that the program will no longer operate near Mass. and Cass — the area around Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard. Fox said he thinks such programs should now be located away from the neighborhood, because it has a concentration of addiction and homeless services and a large open-air drug market.

"I hate to see any addiction treatment program shut down. We want more, not less," Fox said. "But it needs to be in a location where people have a fighting chance to actually build a recovery."

BMC also operates 60 transitional housing beds in the former hotel, for people who've previously stayed unsheltered at Mass. and Cass. That program is under contract with the city through June. A BMC spokesperson would not comment on the hospital's plans for the transitional housing or the people staying there.

But according to Fox, the whole program at the hotel building is problematic.

"Somebody who was staying at the Roundhouse would walk out that door and have a choice in the morning: 'Am I going to go see my drug dealer who is sitting five feet away waiting for me to come out ... or am I going to go to my treatment program?' " Fox said. "And we think that that's a bad situation where that's the decision that somebody walking out of the Roundhouse has to make in the morning.

"The management of crime and problems and people and drug dealing directly in and around the Roundhouse has been something that has really, really been horrible," Fox added.

According to the mayor's office, the city is evaluating options to continue providing services at the Roundhouse or another location.

Fox said he's urged city officials to develop more scattered transitional housing programs — such as the pop-up cottages installed on the campus of Shattuck Hospital in Jamaica Plain, where people from Mass. and Cass get support services as they await permanent supportive housing. That program is a partnership between the state, city and nonprofit service providers.

"When I say we need decentralization and we need to have a de-focus [of services] at Mass. and Cass, the idea is that we need to separate this crisis into bite-sized chunks so that we can deal with it," Fox said.

City officials and BMC declined requests for interviews. They provided statements saying addiction treatment and harm reduction services will continue to be provided at the hospital and through programs run by Boston Public Health Commission, Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program and other providers.