Biden blasted by restaurant owner over border crisis and says it’s turned ‘family-friendly’ desert town into hotbed of crime – after homelessness sleeping on the streets TRIPLED in five years

A Tuscany-area restaurateur decried President Biden’s soft policing and open-borders policies that turned his family-friendly neighborhood into a hotbed of crime.

Grant Kreuger, owner of Union Hospitality Group, told Fox News that the demise of the Arizona hub has left him “terrified,” saying the change seemingly came as Biden entered the White House.

“We’ve had more crime in my restaurants in the last four years than in the previous 15 years combined,” he said.

Tuscon saw a 300 percent spike in unsheltered homelessness between 2018 and 2023, which Kreuger said has caused a crime wave, including an alarming increase in random attacks on its own customers.

Homelessness rose by 60 percent in Tuscon between 2018 and 2023, with unsheltered homelessness increasing by as much as 300 percent in that period, a government report shows

The businessman said his restaurant had previously been found in one of the city’s “nicer neighborhoods,” but the increase in homelessness and crime has caused a sharp decline.

In particular, Kreuger blamed weak border policies for drugs flooding Tuscon, and said his own children are often confronted with drug use in the open.

“Frankly, it scares me for my own children to see this level of open drug use and distribution happening in broad daylight on our city streets,” he said.

Kreuger added that he has personally spent tens of thousands of dollars on security, saying police routinely fail to take tough action.

“It’s gotten to the point where we often don’t even report it to the authorities because, quite frankly, we feel like they’re going to do very little,” he said.

“Our municipalities don’t currently enforce many laws on the books when it comes to public camping, when it comes to panhandling… when it comes to public urination, defecation or open consumption of alcohol and drugs.

“And the lack of enforcement of all these laws has made things tremendously worse here in the desert.

“Additionally, the open border policies we have implemented in recent years have introduced a massive supply of fentanyl into our community.”

Tuscon has seen an alarming increase in drug use in recent years, which Kreuger blamed on weak border policies that allowed drugs like fentanyl to flood the city.

In July 2023, a volunteer helps a homeless woman in Tuscon, Arizona

a government report The May 2023 publication revealed that Pima County has seen an alarming increase in homelessness in recent years.

The report shows that in the past five years, unsheltered homelessness – people sleeping on the streets instead of in shelters – has increased by 300 percent. Homelessness rose by a total of 60 percent.

During that time, Kreuger said the 100-mile riverwalk called “The Loop,” where his businesses are located, has lost its family-friendly, safe appeal.

“These areas along The Loop have become prime areas for homeless encampments,” he said.

“This Loop used to be a huge benefit to both the community and our customers… Now it’s a place I would be afraid to bring my friends and family.”

The crisis has had a direct impact on Kreuger’s restaurants, he says, as a number of customers have been physically attacked while dining.

“I don’t mean attacked as in verbally asking for change, but physically attacked,” he said, adding that there have also been “many, many uncomfortable conversations” that he has never had to deal with.

Kreuger said his restaurants are located in an area called “The Loop” (pictured), which used to be one of the “nicer areas” that he now “fears” to take his kids there.

Kreuger reportedly claimed that a local community anti-crime initiative has been working to reduce the problem, such as placing anti-fraud signs at intersections where homeless encampments are common, but the efforts are falling short.

“There is literally no enforcement,” he said.

“We pay what we call a crime tax, the cost of the city and county’s lack of enforcement of the current laws that are now on the books is essentially costing business owners like me an awful lot of money.

‘It creates situations that are also substantially less comfortable for our customers.

“No one wants to have homeless people accost you in your parking lot, have your car broken into, or have people living in the bushes or behind various facilities in the various commercial establishments that we have here in Tucson.

“And so it’s really been a cost borne by the private sector because of the inability or unwillingness of the public sector to enforce laws that are already on the books.”