Downtown Brockton, Massachusetts, businesses are fed up with the conditions of their streets.
We’re told human feces, needles, and contraceptives are all being found outside their businesses every day and customers are getting scared off.
Business owners place the blame on a homelessness problem that they say has become intolerable and has been getting worse over the past year.
Unhoused individuals are wandering around; some appear to be intoxicated, under the influence, or battling severe mental illness.
Get New England news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NECN newsletters.
One business owner told NBC10 Boston her shop was burglarized last month, adding to her angst about working downtown.
“It’s the fact of feeling violated and unsafe,” Sandra Martin, owner of Elvera's Cafe said.
According to the head of the Downtown Brockton Association, in the past year at least three businesses have left downtown.
“The danger is we’re losing businesses, we’re losing, people are selling their property,” the association’s president, Mary Waldron, said. “There have been a lot of good first steps [by the city to make changes], I think there needs to be more, you know? A fund that could help property owners remove graffiti.”
City officials addressed the homelessness problem at a public meeting last week.
NBC10 Boston reached out to the mayor’s office on Wednesday morning for comment, but we still have not heard back.
