An untamed epidemic of homelessness and crime has driven a beloved New Mexico hamburger store to close after six decades, as local business-owners slammed a lack of action to protect their livelihoods.
Jimmy Holland, regional manager of Griff’s Hamburger store in Albuquerque, said his business has been hampered by homeless criminals for years.
‘We’ve been forced to stay drive-thru even after the pandemic, due to everything that’s gone on over here,’ he told KOAT, adding that a recent shooting outside his store on Mother’s Day was the ‘final straw’ that led him to close.
Holland was joined in his disgust by the owner of the store next door, Doug Inkster, who said he is faced with people sleeping under his business ‘every morning’ and has frequently seen the local homeless population assault customers at Griff’s.
The crisis has sparked fury among the community over a perceived soft-on-crime approach from local leaders, after Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller argued that the ‘root cause (of homelessness) is a lack of shelter’.
Furious locals slammed the loss of ‘longstanding business’ Griff’s Hamburgers (pictured) due to Albuquerque’s out-of-control homeless epidemic
Jimmy Holland (pictured), the manager of Griff’s Hamburgers in Albuquerque, New Mexico, said he has been forced to end the store’s six decades in business due to rampant homelessness
Albuquerque has seen a crimewave sweep the city in recent years, with official statistics finding ‘crimes against society’ surged by almost 2,000 cases a year from 2018 to 2022.
Crimes against society are defined as those involving drug and narcotics offenses, or firearms violations.
New Mexico residents are almost twice as likely than the national average to be a victim of violent crime, striking one in 127 people in the state, according to crime tracker Neighborhood Scout.
The spike in crime was exacerbated by a sharp increase in homelessness, with New Mexico reporting the highest rise in homelessness in the nation shortly before the pandemic in 2020.
And according to a report published that same year by the Urban Institute, homelessness rates in Albuquerque have quadrupled since 2013.
The city has seen a sharp uptick in homelessness in recent years, with one study finding rates almost quadrupled from 2013 to 2020
The crisis has particularly struck Albuquerque’s International District, with Inkster claiming he has frequently seen homeless vagrants target innocent customers.
‘I witnessed them at the drive-thru windows, some of the homeless would come up to the windows of the customers and start confronting them,’ he said.
‘I saw arguments and people get out of their cars to go to fisticuffs because of some of the homeless – it was that bad.’
Holland noted that the city’s crime problems have been an issue for years, but a recent spate of disturbing incidents tipped him over the edge.
‘Despite the neighborhood, the conditions, the homeless, everything that’s going on over here, the shooting on Mother’s Day that happened right next to us drew the final straw,’ he said.
The businessowner was referring to a horror triple shooting that occurred on the streets outside his store on May 14.
One victim was pronounced dead at the scene and two others were rushed to hospital, with footage of the aftermath showing sirens and law enforcement filling the sidewalk next to Griff’s Hamburgers.
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller was recently confronted over the issue, as residents question the loss of a longstanding business in their community
The out-of-control crimewave has sparked fury among residents who feel more should be done, leading a local reporter to recently confront Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller.
The mayor has publicly pushed for homelessness reform in the city, including an initiative to clean the streets and help move homeless people into clinics.
But with the plans flatlining, KOAT journalist Stephanie Muniz asked this week: ‘Are we going to be able to see more of these crews in the International District trying to avoid what happened to Griff’s, and making sure we have these longstanding businesses staying in our city?’
Keller responded vaguely, saying he is intent on ‘moving forward with this issue’ and is set to send out ‘cleaning crews by quadrant.’
The mayor acknowledged the issue needed addressing, but insisted that ‘no matter what homelessness presents itself as on the street, we all know a core root cause is lack of shelter, period.’
Following the 2020 report by the Urban Institute that found homelessness quadrupled in his city, the mayor solemnly labelled the findings ‘sobering’.
The closure comes as rampant homelessness has plagued businesses in several other Dem-led cities, with the worst hit metro being the struggling hub San Francisco.
The once-thriving city has been decimated by homelessness and crime, leading numerous retailers to flee the city to escape out-of-control shoplifting.
Major brands to announce they were closing locations in the city includes Ray Ban, Lululemon, Brooks Brothers and Nordstrom.
One target store in the city revealed that the issue has become so prevalent, it has been targeted by shoplifters every ten minutes.
Out of 203 retailers open in 2019 in the city’s Union Square area, just 107 are still operating, a drop of 47 percent in just a few pandemic-ravaged years.
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