LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- There has been widespread vandalism in recent months n parts of downtown Louisville, including several businesses at Fourth Street Live!
Just one victim of that was Doug Owen, senior vice president of JLL Commercial Real Estate, the leasing agent for four of the towers in downtown Louisville, including Brown & Williamson.
"We've had issues at all the towers. This one has been the most dramatic," Owen said. "The vandalism that's happened is more being caused by vagrants and just a shortness or lack of police patrols in the downtown area."
Last month, a man who police believe is homeless was charged with shattering windows at Brown & Williamson. The company has already spent several hundred thousand dollars on repairs and plywood.
Workers clean up glass outside the Brown & Williamson Tower in downtown Louisville, Ky., on Nov. 16, 2020. The glass was shattered two days after it was installed on Nov. 13, 2020. The windows will now be boarded up again.
"It was about $300,000 initially, and then this last incident was about $100,000," Owen said.
Since then, Owen has reached out to Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer's office and Metro Council, demanding action. He believes the recent spike in vandalism is caused by some of the people living on the streets. Â
"Allowing people to simply wonder the streets and live under bridges doesn't help them at all," Owen said. "What we've seen in other cities and other homeless advocates is increase in funding, increase in services to help get these people off the streets and to help get them into recovery, into homes, into a better life situation, really changes everything. What we see now is the city just allowing these people to live on the streets. Something needs to happen to change that."
Metro Councilwoman Barbara Sexton Smith, D-4, said she has a solution that starts with increasing downtown police patrols and adding a mobile crisis response team to address the city's homeless population.
"I join the call for more action," she said. "A mobile crisis response team would be made up of folks who are trained in dealing with social services and those experiencing homelessness, those experiencing mental illness. And there are proven models around the country."
This is the last week of Metro Council committee meetings for the calendar year. One issue up for debate is the surplus funding from fiscal year 2020. The budget year ended on June 30, 2020.Â
Sexton Smith believes that's a perfect funding source for her proposals. She wants the mobile crisis response team to be used to help with non-emergency 911 calls related to homelessness, loitering, mental illness and other issues.
"My understanding is there is some carry forward funding that will be made available," she said. "We need to fund some services for those who need to get off the street. Not in the jail; get them to get the help and facilities that they need."Â
Sexton Smith said if her proposal moves forward, she hopes downtown businesses will follow guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and bring more of their employees back to the physical buildings.Â
"Because then that puts life here on the streets," she said. "And if you're downtown working part of the week, you're going to go somewhere and buy lunch."
Owen said, right now, it's a struggle finding companies that are willing to relocate to downtown Louisville.
"Right now, I feel like our downtown's economic future is in jeopardy," he said. "We have had people who have declined it. It has always been a number of reasons. When we bring someone, especially a group from the suburbs, and they get approached by vagrants who are asking for cigarettes or change -- and often, those vagrants are aggressive -- that really turns them off. They'll either stay in the suburbs and choose not to come to Louisville."Â
But Owen believes Sexton Smith's proposal could change that.
"I'm very excited about (Sexton Smith's) proposal to add funds to increase police patrols," he said. "Downtown Louisville is the economic center of our city."
On Thursday, Metro Council's Budget Committee is expected to find out how much money is available to be carried over to this fiscal year.
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