Eric Helberg: You're perfectly welcome to remain here.
You just got to wrap up the sleeping gear.
Man: I can do that.
Helberg: You can stay as long as you want.
I just want to make sure you're OK.
Narrator: This officer's entire job
is to check in on the homeless population of the city.
Helberg: Good morning.
You guys have masks?
Narrator: Eric Helberg is part of
the Homeless Outreach Program
at the Cambridge Police Department.
Helberg: Sitting over there is perfectly legitimate.
Laying out on the sidewalk is not.
It's easy to go in there with force
and force the person to cooperate.
But once you've done that, the relationship is over.
Christine Elow: You sleep on the street?
Will you go to the shelter?
Officer: Sometimes people look at us just like police officers,
rather than all the social work
and stuff that we do out here.
Narrator: The department is trying to do all it can
to repair a strained relationship with the city's homeless.
We had these zero-tolerance initiatives.
If you see somebody drinking in public,
arrest them, arrest them.
We did that for years, if not decades.
Officer: Putting somebody who is homeless
or addicted to substances
into a criminal justice system, that's not helping anybody.
Narrator: What could help is a different
kind of approach, outside of the police department.
Make sure they're all right if you see the homeless.
Protect yourselves at all times. Stay safe.
Narrator: These men in orange vests
walk around providing blankets, food,
and support for the city's homeless population.
Y'all stay warm, man.
Narrator: They're part of the city's
Business Improvement District.
Paul White: We hear them.
We listen to them.
We understand them.
We feel their pain because most of us have been through it.
See, you have to really walk into their shoes
to really understand what I'm saying.
Narrator: Many wonder if helping the homeless
should fall under the police department at all.
I don't want anything bad to happen to you.
Narrator: We visited Cambridge to see
which method actually works.
Helberg: We're usually the first person
that these people come in contact with,
especially when they're in crisis.
Jackie: You see him? Helberg: I do.
Are you in danger right now?
Jackie: I don't know. Helberg: All right, listen, Jackie.
Jackie: This has never happened to me in my life.
Helberg: Do you want to go to the hospital right now?
Do you want to go to the hospital right now?
Jackie: What am I going to do, Eric?
Narrator: Eric is trying to calm a woman named Jackie
as she tells him about an alleged crime
committed against her.
Helberg: I think you should go home for now.
Jackie: I want you to get ahold of the detective.
Helberg: Why don't you go somewhere where it's safe.
Jackie, will you go to the other corner?
Jackie: I'm going to kill myself.
Man: Jackie, you having a breakdown?
Woman: Don't say that, because if you say that,
they're going to call an ambulance on your a--.
Helberg: Could I have Pro EMS please at Carl Barron Plaza?
Narrator: He calls for medical aid,
and she heads to the hospital.
Helberg: Jackie's intoxicated.
She's experiencing emotional distress.
Narrator: About a decade ago,
the department's policies would have forced Eric
to arrest Jackie for public intoxication.
Changing how officers respond to issues of homelessness
was essential for Cambridge.
The number of people living on the streets
is almost three times higher than the national average.
Helberg: According to our homeless census, on any given year
we have about 500 people living on the street.
Narrator: The problem is partly
because of Cambridge's skyrocketing housing prices.
The average cost of a single-family home in 2019
was about $1.5 million,
almost four times the national average.
And while the standard rent for a one-bedroom
is a little over $1,600 in the US,
recent estimates show it's much higher in Cambridge.
It can be costly for someone receiving little to no wages.
A person earning minimum wage in Massachusetts
would have to work nearly 100 hours a week
to afford housing at the city's lowest rates.
And not having a place to sleep at night
makes everything else harder.
Ray: I've been homeless for six months.
I'm very educated, college degree.
I can go to work tomorrow.
But how can I go to work without having a stable place?
This could happen to anybody.
Narrator: Patrolling the city's homeless
used to be both challenging and ineffective
for the Cambridge Police Department.
The officers rarely developed relationships
with those who are unhoused.
Instead, most interactions took place
after an altercation or call for help.
It would often lead to arrests for low-level crimes,
like loitering or drinking in public.
Christine Elow: The formal criminal justice system
was like a revolving door.
So we'd arrest somebody, then they'd be let out
in the street a couple of hours later.
And then they're drinking again.
Narrator: Christine Elow oversees
the Homeless Outreach Program
as the city's first Black female superintendent.
It launched in 2007, just two years before
the department was placed in the national spotlight
over the arrest of professor Henry Louis Gates.
Barack Obama: The Cambridge police acted stupidly
in arresting somebody when there was already proof
that they were in their own home.
Elow: For me, that was almost like the beginning
of the Black Lives Matter movement.
To where? Man: The shelter.
You want to go to the shelter?
Narrator: The moment forced the police department
to reevaluate and train officers
to treat civilians with respect.
Elow: I think there's a denial in some police circles
about systemic racism and the impact that it has had
on Black and brown communities.
Some people feel like it's their own fault.
If Black people worked harder,
or if brown people worked harder,
then they can find their way out of poverty
and find their way to a successful life
or the American dream.
What's your name?
Junior. Junior.
Yeah.
Man: They call him Green Eyes.
Elow: All right, Green Eyes.
Killing the ladies.
Take care.
So when you think about being seen as legitimate
in the eyes of the community,
it's really dealing with the whole person
in whatever issues they're dealing with, right?
So we want to treat people with respect and dignity.
Have you been drinking at all?
Here you are, sir.
You're welcome.
Anything else you need today?
It's perfectly legitimate to sit on that bench
all day if you want.
If I see somebody that's slumped over
I'm going to at least say, "Are you OK?"
You can stay as long as you want.
I just want to make sure you're OK.
Narrator: Those on the receiving end
often say they appreciate CPD's efforts,
especially compared to other cities.
Man: Cambridge police is the most --
I done been around police that whoop your a--.
And these police, I'm telling you right now,
never hurt us, they don't.
They help us out.
If they weren't there, I'd be dead right now.
They're very professional,
and they listen very carefully.
If they approach you,
they approach you with dignity and respect.
Narrator: Still, the department's most recent report
shows homeless arrest increased in the last decade,
reaching almost 16% of total arrests in 2015.
It's a lot for a group that accounts for less than
0.5% of the city's population.
The department also faced criticism in 2020
after residents demanded the reallocation of funds.
Thousands showed their support
for other community resources instead of the police.
All right, all right.
How are y'all doing?
Snoop, how you doing?
Hey, how you doing?
Narrator: One alternative to policing in Cambridge
is the Business Improvement District, or BIDs.
Take your warm-ups, make sure you got hand warmers,
and be safe out there.
Narrator: Michael Monestime has led
the organization since 2019.
But his work is more important now than ever.
We wear bright, visible colors so you can see us.
Thank you. You're welcome.
Monestime: That omnipresence is important,
especially as there's been a decline in
other sort of foot patrol that we've seen.
How you doing there?
Blankets? No, no.
What you need? Citizen's Bank.
Citizen's Bank, yes.
Citizen's Bank is up there, right across the street.
Narrator: Ambassadors for BIDs check in on people
who are unhoused, many coming from the streets themselves.
You have a good day.
Narrator: Paul White has been an outreach ambassador
for a couple of years now.
He oversees a team of eight.
But before that, he was living on the streets
for almost a decade.
I ended up on the streets because I burned all my bridges
with my loved ones, family, friends, and all of that
by drugging, stealing, robbing.
You say it, I done it. I was a mess.
In and out of jail.
I was going nowhere real fast. Faster than fast.
Narrator: He vividly remembers
interactions with officers.
White: Back when I was drinking and drugging and all of that,
my thing was to talk trash to them.
All right, here we go.
Narrator: Rain or shine, ambassadors walk around
to different hotspots, including needle exchanges,
warming shelters, and bus stops.
They hope to get ahead of issues before they get worse.
Oftentimes Cambridge Police homeless outreach
is responding to a concern.
So the work that they do,
while it's meant to be proactive, sometimes it's reactive.
Narrator: While both organizations operate differently,
BIDs still relies on the police for help when needed.
White: The police here, they save a lot of lives, too.
There's people overdosing every day.
And the cops are on the scene, you know what I mean?
They know everybody. Trust me, they know everybody.
They know them by their names and all that.
Gail, are you back at Albany Street?
How long have you been back there?
A minute.
A minute?
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Narrator: The police department is slowly regaining
its trust among the homeless population.
Instead of arrest, officers are encouraged
to file court orders that lead to treatment opportunities.
The number of orders filed has tripled
since the initiative began in 2013.
Elow: It's looking for alternatives
to the criminal justice system,
whether it's mental health issues, or substance abuse,
or a combination of that, plus homelessness and poverty.
Helberg: Policing should be about building relationships
with the community, and do that in such a way
that people don't look at at me with fear.
We look at each other with mutual respect.
It's me.
Narrator: Even with all this effort,
the city's homelessness numbers remain steady,
shedding light on a systemic problem
that might not be solved with just one group.
White: My biggest hope is that I can get to one,
and their life can change.
And for them to pass it on to someone else,
as it was passed down to me.