Homeless encampments don’t have a long history in Boston — the city’s often-frigid climate can be awfully hostile to rough sleeping.

So the tent city at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, a site known as Mass. and Cass, stands as a testament to the brutal tenacity of the affordable housing crunch, Covid-19 pandemic and opioid epidemic.

Shortly after taking office in November, Michelle Wu paused former Mayor Marty Walsh’s plan to carry out another sweep at this site, but now she’s moving ahead: Bulldozers began tearing down tents at the intersection on Jan. 12.

While previous encampment clearances angered housing and health advocates, they’re lining up behind Wu’s current effort, which she has described as a “public health approach.” Don’t call it a sweep, they say.

Read more about the plans at the link in bio.

?: Scott Eisen/Getty Images, Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images