Homeless Epidemic Only Gets Worse at the Downtown
Over the past few months, it has been hard to ignore the growing problem plaguing the downtown.
Appearing out of nowhere, homeless encampments have been appearing in the downtown everywhere, even at the most pristine shopping centers. As seen in the picture to the right, the largest of the homeless encampments sits on the southeast corner of the Octamall, which is blocking one of the staircases to the main entrance, and is an eyesore to the luxury resort which has halted construction due to design issues. There is even an encampment in front of the historic Spawn Tree, preventing the public from enjoying this historic landmark.
This problem is not new to the Downtown, or the entire server in fact. In past months, a small homeless population has always been seen in the downtown, but never to this magnitude. Over the past few months, large encampments around the Octamall and other places in the downtown have been popping up with no resistance. Since the presence of these encampments, the Octamall has seen a 125% increase in shoplifting and harassment of customers and employees. Tadog Mercantile has also seen a spike in shoplifting and misdemeanor crimes on store property, and both stores have been forced to close their doors to non-paying customers.
Where are they coming from? It is believed to be a combination of a more interconnected server and lack of enforcement. The presence of the homeless population began to increase with the introduction of the Tadog Path Project, but the encampments didn't start to appear until after the movement of spawn and the introduction of the biome portals. With the Tadog Path Project and the biome portals, the Downtown has not been the only place fighting this issue. Communities such as Amberwood, Ur Mom Village, and Winter's Edge have all seen a spike in homeless presence, but have been able to keep the encampments away. Unfortunately for the Downtown, it seems as if the server admins have given up on enforcement, being that the Downtown is no longer spawn, so the effort in keeping the area nice has declined.