Boston City Councilor Sharon Durkan, an ally and former employee of the mayor, blocked a resolution offered by Wu administration critic Ed Flynn that sought to issue an emergency declaration for the open-air drug market at Mass and Cass.

Later on in the day, after Wednesday’s Council meeting and Durkan’s objection, Mayor Michelle Wu’s office issued a statement saying that the city was opposed to an emergency declaration for Mass and Cass and its surrounding neighborhoods.

“The city is using all levers of public health, public safety, and public works resources, in partnership with the community, providers, and the state, to end congregate substance use and the criminal activity that supports it,” Wu spokesperson Emma Pettit said. “Declaring a local public health emergency does not unlock any additional authority or resources.

“What is needed is continued coordinated, compassionate response to eliminate public drug use and address barriers to treatment, shelter and housing. This work is urgent and we are focused on concrete solutions,” Pettit added.

Durkan, when objecting to Councilor Flynn’s resolution earlier in the day, made similar statements.

“This is a complex challenge, and addressing issues like addiction and homelessness requires sustained coordination and substantial investment to support those who are struggling, along with careful attention to the impact on the surrounding communities,” Durkan said. “While the city has taken steps to respond, it’s clear that continued and expanded efforts are needed.

“However,” she said, “I don’t believe this resolution represents the right steps forward. For starters, what funding would an emergency declaration provide? None. All it would do is waive public process.”

The city’s Board of Health opted not to act on a prior Mass and Cass emergency declaration from Councilors Flynn and Erin Murphy, and then-Councilors Frank Baker and Michael Flaherty in September 2023.

But the board, per a Public Health Commission spokesperson, expressed support for an ordinance Wu was pushing at the time to clear the long-standing tent encampment at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, which has come to be known as Mass and Cass.

Since tents were cleared on Atkinson Street in November 2023, residents and some elected officials have stated that the open-air drug use, dealing, and related violence has migrated and, therefore, worsened in surrounding neighborhoods.

Flynn’s emergency declaration proposal comes at a time when the spillover from Mass and Cass has become particularly prevalent in the South End, according to residents there, who have been calling for more policing, and even the deployment of the National Guard.

The mayor has dismissed calls for a military response to tackle the issue, but has said the city is deploying more public safety resources in the area.

“It is long overdue for the Boston City Council to have this conversation,” Flynn said at the day’s meeting. “The conditions at not only Mass and Cass but the surrounding neighborhoods in Roxbury, South Boston, Dorchester (and) the South End have significantly deteriorated.”

Flynn said his resolution, if passed by the Council despite being legally non-binding, would necessitate action from the city “to move forward with establishing a comprehensive plan to address the serious quality of life, public safety” and “public health concerns” residents taxed by the spillover are facing.

He mentioned two widely-reported incidents of late, involving a 4-year-old boy who is undergoing HIV-prevention treatment after stepping on a needle while playing outside in South Boston in June and a homeless woman who squatted in a South End family’s home for days while they were away for the weekend.

“Any reasonable person who visits the area today will agree the city’s plan has failed,” Flynn said. “What has taken place there over a decade is completely unacceptable: open-air drug market, dealing to dozens and dozens of people, public drug use, human trafficking, acts of serious violence, public defecation, urination.

“If this is not a public safety and public health emergency and a humanitarian crisis, I don’t know what is,” Flynn, who represents South Boston and part of the South End, added.

As Durkan’s objection blocked further discussion on the matter, per Council rules, it’s unclear where many other councilors stood on Flynn’s call for an emergency declaration.

Murphy, who joined the call for an emergency declaration two years ago, told the Herald she still supports such action.

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“I am supportive because the administration has not shown in good faith that anything’s going to change with the current policy,” Murphy said, adding that such action may help “get real change for these residents who are suffering.”

“I’ve said from the beginning, and I still agree that those who are struggling and those who truly have addiction problems and mental health concerns, we are doing a good job with supporting and providing services for those people,” she said.

Murphy said, however, that the city’s solution should not be a “this or that” one, in that residents who are affected by others’ problems also “have a right to a safe neighborhood.”

Council President Ruthzee Louijeune referred the resolution to the Committee on Public Health, Homelessness and Recovery.

While blocked resolutions sometimes die in committee, Councilor John FitzGerald, the public health chair who represents Dorchester and the South End, told the Herald, “I absolutely will hold a hearing on it.”

When asked for his position on Flynn’s emergency declaration proposal, FitzGerald, who has been pushing the city to reevaluate its current plan for Mass and Cass, demurred but said, “I invite any of my colleagues to come tour the area with me and decide for themselves.”