‘We Want People to Feel Welcome’
- Daria Mohan Zhang
- 4 minutes ago
- 6 min read
State Sen. Nick Collins chats with Sampan about Chinatown, housing, homelessness, more
State Sen. Nick Collins represents a diverse slice of Boston in the Suffolk First District, which includes parts of Dorchester, Mattapan and Chinatown, and is home to over 180,000 residents. A South Boston resident and father of two girls, Sen. Collins attended Babson College where he studied business management. He first won the First Suffolk seat in 2018 and was earlier a State Representative, when he represented the Fourth District. Sampan spoke to Sen. Collins recently in his office to find his views on a variety of issues including development in the neighborhood, homelessness and housing, and public safety.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Sampan: Your work in Chinatown has included initiatives around funding for the Chinatown Land Trust, Quincy School reconstruction, and other projects. Among them, which are you most proud of?
Collins: The funding for the Josiah Quincy School. It was the state that put up $54 million. This public school supports the Chinese American community and culture in Chinatown. I think having that investment is going to last generations, and it can be a place where seniors and families can use for events and where you can get children educated with the best public education in the city.
Sampan: Why do you think (supporting Chinatown) is necessary?
Collins: What makes Chinatown unique is that it is situated in the downtown area of the city. It has a lot of culture, history and resilience. I remember when I was in college, when I had weekly meetings with my fellow classmates, everybody wanted to go to Chinatown…. It shows the diversity of Boston. Those cultural traditions and the restaurant community help define the city.
Sampan: Besides Chinatown, your district includes a diverse slice of Boston. How do you approach serving all the areas you represent, balancing the needs of the different areas of Boston?
Collins: I think no matter what culture we come from, we bring value from the perspective of the community that we were raised in. We have great communities such as the Vietnamese community, the Cape Verde community and the Haitian community…. I think the people that I represent across this district, we face and get solutions on the important issues by keeping an open mind, getting into those communities and spending time to build relationships with different people.
We also have a balanced economy in our district. We have a theater district, our health care industry (and) colleges, so it is a very diverse district in many ways, not just by population. What I try to do is get resources and support policies that prioritize people to get the needed services and to maximize their full potential.
Sampan: Please talk about Bill S.1042, which would require patients admitted to a medical facility for overdose treatment to be evaluated by a licensed social worker before discharge. What is the status of that bill? Why did you propose it?
Collins: It’s driven by the impacts that people are feeling, from Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard to Downtown and Chinatown, from the combination of mental health, addiction and homelessness. We’ve had too many people, 2,500 people a year, coming to the emergency room and being discharged without treatment or knowing where to go.
Now, this bill in its current form, needs some changes. What we would like to see in the result is to ensure that people who are in treatment get the treatment they need, not discharged early; we want an intervention point that is sensible and not combative in having access to the services that people need. I think part of that is the budgetary issue, so we are going to address that in the budget.
Sampan: Turning to housing, how do you balance the use of the public space with other purposes and building homes?
Collins: I think we need to preserve open spaces, especially in Chinatown. That is why I support the proposal that the city and the state are looking at: putting decking over the highway to create open space. Also, we have the opportunity to utilize our Community Preservation Act funds in affordable housing and open spaces.
Sampan: What is your view about the cost of housing, which many feel is too high to be livable in much of Massachusetts…?
Collins: One of the reasons why we put resources into the Chinatown Land Trust is so they can make their acquisitions to keep the cost of housing down. There are other elements of policy that we are looking at to create more affordable housing, including prioritizing the use of public land, finding creative ways to build more housing and building houses outside of Boston.
We put forth funding in our Affordable Homes Act with an accelerator program to help build affordable housing, as well as provide relief to drive down the cost, like sales tax exemption on housing construction materials, which was just (recently) passed.
Sampan: You recently spoke against the proposed relocation of a strip club in Chinatown. How do you balance neighborhood opposition and the free speech rights of the club owners?
Collins: I don’t think it’s a freedom of speech rights issue. In order to get licensure for that, we need to establish an unmet need that the community is looking to fill. We have learned that most of the (strip club) customers come from out of state, so it’s not serving the residents at all. The state has a commitment to Chinatown, so we don’t want to see that go to waste or be devalued because of this…
Sampan: Homelessness is a huge problem in the city and beyond. What do you feel are some of the root causes of homelessness, and how can they be addressed?
Collins: I think a lot of (the increase in homelessness) is intersected with mental health issues. We need to provide services, with a roof over people’s heads…. There was a proposal that was going nationwide (that said) “housing first,” and treatment wasn't really in the ether. So, what we're proposing is a treatment model that will provide people the mental health and substance abuse services with a roof over head so they can become stable. We have a study with MIT and the Navy that came out and that we put forth, the “Floating Hospital for Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Recovery.” While these areas of the city are debating where to put long term facilities, it has taken a long time. They are also very, very costly. … At a fraction of the cost, we could have a facility right on the waterfront that can help people on-demand, going from the emergency room to a facility that's going to serve them on the mental health issues, substance use issues and housing. …
Sampan: What is your view on the ongoing immigration crackdowns?
Collins: We are passing legislation up here to try to deal with those issues in the form of the Protect Act, which just passed the House (and later passed the Senate earlier in May). We want people to continue to feel welcome. That legislation will help people feel that way.
Sampan: What are you looking forward to in the future? What are some political goals you have?
Collins: I want to see us have a greener city and a greener state that’s going to have clear air for communities like Chinatown. Today, we are voting on the environmental bond bill and the Mass Ready Act (The Mass Ready Act passed the Senate in mid-April after our conversation). One of the issues is with respect to storm water management, so we are building a resilient Chinatown that is close to water. It needs major infrastructure investments, as well as a reboot of the water treatment facilities. Then, we are able to handle the surges in storm water and climate events that have a devastating impact on the community.
Sampan: Do you have anything to add?
Collins: We have a language access bill that we are trying to pass, which would require every state agency, possibly the court system, to have an interpreter and have the ability for every language, particularly the Chinese language. Right now, language is a barrier for some people, especially older people. I have co-sponsored this bill that I pushed out of my committee we are trying to get done before the end of the session.