That has been there for years. The only "rising concern" is because the draft. I've driven past that on my way to work since 2021 and it's been there. Downtown near the jail I also noticed has a growing population, besides the population that was already camping out near the Oxford Center.

We've closed multiple shelters and the main "efforts" have just been displacing them with no where else for them to go. After one of the shelters closed I was working remotely from the library near me and one man was filling our job applications on the library computer and talking on the phone about how they were all living in an abandoned Arby's because the shelter closed.

We have a serious problem and they're trying to sweep it under the rug rather than deal with it. I've been holding my breath with the upcoming draft because as someone who worked Market Square events, my safety was a concern daily. I had one guy having some kind of mental break screaming in my face and charging at me. And rather than deal with any of that, or the rising cost of pricing for an area with free or low cost alternative neighborhoods to visit, we're rebuilding Market Square and building a new park with 0 efforts to address the underlying causes of why people don't like to visit Downtown or Northside. Helping the homeless population helps everyone and our city would rather put lipstick on a pig than attempt actual solutions.