For years, Asheville, marketed itself as a mountain escape known for breweries, boutique hotels and Blue Ridge views. But residents and critics say a different reality has taken shape in the wake of Hurricane Helene: panhandling at intersections, public intoxication, encampments and an unsafe downtown.
Carl Mumpower, a private practice clinical psychologist, lifelong Asheville resident and former City Council member who served from 2001 until 2009, said the citys current challenges stem from decisions made over decades.
“Asheville began its efforts to three decades ago. This effort accelerated in the early part of this century with the first Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness,” Mumpower told Fox News Digital.
“That plan was ill advised but passed with a super-majority. At the time, I suggested to the council that any plan that removed personal accountability from the helping equation was doomed to fail.”
Mumpower said the city has continued down the same path ever since.
“That plan and subsequent plans have failed with equal enthusiasm. have increased relentlessly under the watch of local homelessness experts and a governing body that is dominated by liberal Democrats and those with an even more extreme view to the left. That lack of balance â the last conservative on the council was in 2009 â has led to a myopic repeat of errors.”
He also argued that city leaders relied on ideas that were not grounded in practical solutions.
“As regards homelessness, Asheville has a persisting history of pursuing realistic, measurable and trackable solutions.”
The Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care, the local, government-supported coalition responsible for coordinating federal homelessness planning and services in Asheville and Buncombe County, said homelessness in the region is at its highest level on record in its latest count.
Data from the groups 2026 Point-in-Time survey found 824 people experiencing homelessness, a 9.1% increase from 2025. That included 334 people living unsheltered, up 1.8% from the prior year. Nearly 500 others were in shelters or transitional housing, a rise the Continuum of Care attributed partly to expanded emergency shelter and transitional housing capacity.
These “fantasize interventions,” Mumpower said, were accompanied by the citys pursuit of defunding the .
“The councils political dismantling of the police department â resulting in a 40% reduction due to retirements and resignations â has had a dramatic impact on crime in Asheville,” he said. “Most smaller crimes are no longer enforced or realistically tracked, and return on investment costs have skyrocketed. We have officers who earned over $150,000 in overtime last year due to manpower shortages. Enforcement is not possible without adequate, motivated personnel.”
“The direct impact on residents is increased and unenforced crime, direct exposure to intoxication and violent street behaviors, and burdensome and fees to chase the recycled program pretenses.”
Mumpower said many local residents have simply stopped going downtown.
“The single most common phrase uttered by county and surrounding area residents is I dont go downtown anymore – its nasty, crazy, and scary,” he said.
He said tourism also suffers when disorder becomes more visible in the city center.
“Tourism is impacted, and those we attract are often coming here not as families, but as partiers seeking to join the fray.”
The issue has taken on added urgency in the aftermath of parts of western North Carolina in September 2024.
Michael Whatley, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in North Carolina, said the storm worsened and exposed failures in the government response.
“The biggest issue set that weve been dealing with, obviously, is the hurricane relief coming on
