Lemuel Shattuck Hospital

During a lengthy Boston City Council hearing last Thursday, some community members residing near Franklin Park voiced concerns over the scope of the plan to overhaul the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital, while others showed support for the project.

Calls to Boston’s 311 line to report discarded needles, open drug use, overdoses and encampments in Franklin Park skyrocketed last year after the city removed tents and improvised shelters from the Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard area and erected temporary housing structures on the Shattuck grounds.

A 60-year-old Black man committed to Lemuel Shattuck Hospital’s psychiatric ward died a “painful, untimely death” due in part to the state’s failure to provide adequate health care, according to a report released Monday.