Once-charming mountain escape now battling homelessness homeowners say turned postcard city into no-go zone

For years, Asheville, North Carolina, marketed itself arsenic a upland flight known for breweries, boutique hotels and Blue Ridge views. But residents and critics accidental a antithetic world has taken signifier successful the aftermath of Hurricane Helene: panhandling astatine intersections, nationalist intoxication, encampments and an unsafe downtown.

Carl Mumpower, a backstage signifier objective psychologist, lifelong Asheville nonmigratory and erstwhile City Council subordinate who served from 2001 until 2009, said the city’s existent challenges stem from decisions made implicit decades.

"Asheville began its efforts to code homelessness astatine slightest 3 decades ago. This effort accelerated successful the aboriginal portion of this period with the archetypal ‘Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness,’" Mumpower told Fox News Digital.

"That program was sick advised but passed with a super-majority. At the time, I suggested to the assembly that immoderate program that removed idiosyncratic accountability from the helping equation was doomed to fail."

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Homeless radical play euphony successful downtown Asheville, North Carolina peddling for money. (Getty Images)

Mumpower said the metropolis has continued down the aforesaid way ever since.

"That program and consequent plans person failed with adjacent enthusiasm. Homelessness, cause abuse, and related crimes person accrued relentlessly nether the ticker of section homelessness experts and a governing assemblage that is dominated by wide Democrats and those with an adjacent much utmost presumption to the left. That deficiency of equilibrium — the past blimpish connected the assembly was successful 2009 — has led to a myopic repetition of errors."

He besides argued that metropolis leaders relied connected ideas that were not grounded successful applicable solutions.

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Downtown Asheville is struggling to woody with homelessness and crime, critics say. (iStock)

"As regards homelessness, Asheville has a persisting past of pursuing fantasized interventions implicit much realistic, measurable and trackable solutions."

The Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care, the local, government-supported conjugation liable for coordinating national homelessness readying and services successful Asheville and Buncombe County, said homelessness successful the portion is astatine its highest level connected grounds successful its latest count.

Data from the group’s 2026 Point-in-Time survey recovered 824 radical experiencing homelessness, a 9.1% summation from 2025. That included 334 radical surviving unsheltered, up 1.8% from the anterior year. Nearly 500 others were successful shelters oregon transitional housing, a emergence the Continuum of Care attributed partially to expanded exigency structure and transitional lodging capacity.

People locomotion done downtown Asheville, North Carolina. (Getty Images)

These "fantasize interventions," Mumpower said, were accompanied by the city’s pursuit of defunding the constabulary department.

"The council’s governmental dismantling of the constabulary section — resulting successful a 40% simplification owed to retirements and resignations — has had a melodramatic interaction connected transgression successful Asheville," helium said. "Most ‘smaller’ crimes are nary longer enforced oregon realistically tracked, and instrumentality connected concern costs person skyrocketed. We person officers who earned implicit $150,000 successful overtime past twelvemonth owed to manpower shortages. Enforcement is not imaginable without adequate, motivated personnel."

"The nonstop interaction connected residents is accrued and unenforced crime, nonstop vulnerability to intoxication and convulsive thoroughfare behaviors, and burdensome taxes and fees to pursuit the recycled programme pretenses."

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Homelessness and transgression person crept into downtown Asheville, critics say. (Getty Images)

Mumpower said galore section residents person simply stopped going downtown.

"The azygous astir communal operation uttered by region and surrounding country residents is ‘I don’t spell downtown anymore - it’s nasty, crazy, and scary,’" helium said.

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He said tourism besides suffers erstwhile upset becomes much disposable successful the metropolis center.

"Tourism is impacted, and those we pull are often coming present not arsenic families, but arsenic partiers seeking to articulation the fray."

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People successful Asheville worked unneurotic to enactment each different arsenic they struggled to instrumentality to mean beingness successful the aftermath of Hurricane Helene successful September 2024. (Fox News)

The contented has taken connected added urgency successful the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which devastated parts of occidental North Carolina successful September 2024.

Michael Whatley, a Republican campaigner for U.S. Senate successful North Carolina, said the tempest worsened hardship successful the portion and exposed failures successful the authorities response.

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"The biggest contented acceptable that we’ve been dealing with, obviously, is the hurricane alleviation coming connected the heels of Hurricane Helene and the information that the Biden medication and Roy Cooper, erstwhile helium was governor, failed miserably to assistance that concern successful presumption of pursuing the hurricane," Whatley told Fox News Digital.

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump sojourn a vicinity affected by Hurricane Helene successful Swannanoa, N.C., connected Jan. 24, 2025.

Whatley said that the administration’s clearance of alleviation funds volition assistance residents to get backmost connected their feet.

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"As portion of President Trump’s authorities response, $1.4B was made disposable by HUD for lodging relief," Whatley said. "And determination besides has been implicit the past period oregon truthful a batch of question with FEMA successful presumption of the catastrophe alleviation that they’re providing to homeowners there."

"We’re surely not acceptable to bent up a ngo accomplished motion by immoderate agelong of the imagination. But national alleviation that has been enactment into Western North Carolina is substantially much than has ever been fixed into North Carolina arsenic a effect of immoderate tempest by the national government."

The Asheville, North Carolina, skyline is shown astatine sunset. The city, located successful the Blue Ridge Mountains of Buncombe County, experienced a 31% summation successful convulsive transgression from 2016 to 2020. (Pawel Gaul/Getty Images)

In a connection to Fox News Digital, the City of Asheville said that officials proceed to absorption connected nationalist safety.

"This period we launched the Asheville Police Department's Downtown Plan which volition fundamentally treble constabulary patrols downtown – expanding time and overnight patrols and, successful immoderate cases, responding on with trained intelligence wellness counselors. Our REST Team programme is an operational effect to mitigate the effects of homelessness," the metropolis said. "It uses specially trained Asheville Fire Department unit to prosecute with acrophobic residents and radical experiencing homelessness to problem-solve and link them to resources."

A metropolis spokesperson besides noted that officials expanded their panhandling ordinance and proceed moving with assemblage partners similar the Asheville Downtown Association and its ADID program.

Fox News Digital has reached retired to Cooper's campaign, the Asheville's politician bureau and the constabulary section for comment.