At the young age of 15, Rick Dyer’s addiction to drugs and drinking began.

Going through over 40 bags of heroin a day at one point, he experienced homelessness and incarceration, both common among people struggling with substance abuse. But what was different about Dyer was his passion to change his life.

“My mother put her hand on my knee and said, ‘Richard, I know how hopeless and helpless you must be, but I want you to borrow my hope and to get your own,’” Dyer said. “I don’t know what happened, I just kind of never looked back [and] I believe in hindsight that I had the gift of desperation.”

Earning his GED in jail and practicing law afterward, Dyer’s life changed. Now a recovery lawyer in Massachusetts and a father of six, his life has come full circle. He shares his story with his clients and those who are struggling like he once did.

“I got addicted to life, I got addicted to everything I looked for in a bag of heroin or drinking and it was right before my eyes all the time,” Dyer said.

Dyer’s story connects to a significant current issue in the state capital: Mass. and Cass. The intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard in Boston is the epicenter of the state’s homelessness and substance abuse problems.

Data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development shows an average of 326,000 homeless individuals in the nation on a single night in January 2021. In Massachusetts alone, there are over 13,500 people who have experienced sheltered homelessness. More startling: Half of the total homeless population in the U.S. is in four states, with Massachusetts being one of them.

In terms of the opioid crisis, overdose deaths ticked up 1% nationwide from 2020 to 2021, to more than 100,000 fatalities. Since 2008, Massachusetts has been in the top percentile of opioid-related death rates in the U.S., with more than twice the U.S. average in 2016.

There’s a common perception that homeless people gravitate toward drugs, but that is not always the case.

“Very often it’s the reverse: People who are using drugs become homeless because they’re either influenced by their families or they cannot hold a job,” said Bertha Madras, professor of psychobiology at Harvard Medical School, who served on former President Trump’s presidential opioid commission. “They have possibly started at a very early age, using marijuana and other substances and then gradually began to investigate and try opioids.”

Mass. and Cass has been flooded by homeless individuals since 2014, tracing back to the closure of the Long Island Bridge, which connected the mainland to the Boston Harbor island that previously served as a campus for substance abuse treatment.

Former Mayor Marty Walsh shut down the bridge after the Massachusetts Department of Transportation raised concerns about its condition, and it was eventually demolished.

However, the area served an important purpose at the time.

“Close to 60% of the city’s population that had substance use disorders that were in treatment were housed on Long Island,” Madras said. “Then, access to the island became untenable because of the leakiness of the bridge system [so]they closed it down and … they decided that they would have to replace it with something, so they replaced it with a shelter in the area around Mass. and Cass.”

Talks to rebuild the bridge have been in the works, with Mayor Michelle Wu supporting the redevelopment of a 35-acre recovery campus that would serve as a home for long-term treatment.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Coast Guard approved the rebuilding of the bridge in June of this year and Boston was given $16.5 million over the span of three years from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to advance this process.

Madras explained how this campus would be beneficial.

“First of all, the advantage of the Long Island treatment facility is that it is far away from the dealers (near Mass. and Cass)… Number two, it is far from the temptations of substance use in the area,” Madras said.

However, rebuilding the campus comes with several challenges, including the requirement of two more key permits: a bridge permit from the Coast Guard and a consistency review from the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management.

Additionally, some communities such as Quincy, where the bridge would connect to the mainland, are against this redevelopment. Quincy officials have expressed fears such as environmental impacts and increased traffic.

With the bridge in the works for the future, Boston is working to make improvements through other significant developments, such as clearing tent encampments at Mass. and Cass over the past month.

Wu says the city is seeing “real signs of stability [and a] different way forward” through this enforcement.

Public health experts continue to encourage more policies and steps to be taken. Madras believes that a comprehensive system of care and services will help ease the crisis.

“Introducing medication assistance is the key to helping the majority of people,” Madras said. “I think the most important thing is to integrate medical psychiatric and substance use treatment services.”

Thomas Byrne, associate professor at the Boston University School of Social Work, thinks permanent housing and subsidies are key solutions.

“Shelter isn’t a solution to homelessness; it’s about getting people into permanent housing,” Byrne explained. “The single best thing we can do to alleviate homelessness is to increase the availability of subsidies to help people pay for housing because it’s a resource problem, and political will is needed to expand housing subsidies.”

Although as many as 25% of Boston’s residents are homeless, according to Madras, this issue of affordable housing and the opioid epidemic is a statewide issue.

“According to the Central Mass Housing Agency, from 2021 to 2023, there was a 70% increase in the number of individuals experiencing homelessness,” said Tom Matthews, a spokesperson for Worcester City Manager Eric D. Batista. “The numbers during the winter months went from 477 in 2021 to 624 in 2022 and 810 in 2023, [and] recent trends suggest a 14% increase in demand for shelter this winter over last year.”

To address the shortage, the city is partnering with the South Middlesex Opportunity Council to open a winter emergency shelter site in downtown Worcester. The shelter offers 60 beds, meals, mental health support, and more for homeless individuals.

There are similar numbers in western Massachusetts, with over 3,000 homeless people, and an overall 24% increase in their numbers post-pandemic.

Still, the region is doing what they can to prepare for the winter season, says Pamela Schwartz, director of theWestern Massachusetts Network to End Homelessness.

“All shelters are full, but there are emergency hotel funds, warming centers, and new funding from the state to provide additional relief,” Schwartz said. “The shelters currently have no additional winter capacity, but funds exist to support emergency hotel stays….(and) there are additional funds to support emergency hotel stays.”

Clara Cho writes for the Gazette through the Boston University Statehouse Program.