Since a revitalization and facelift in 2009, Grand Junction’s Main Street has seen growth for businesses and an overall developmental boom. However, homeless residents have also flocked to the area, creating a problem for police and business owners.

Shop owners say constant panhandling, fights and intoxication by the homeless are driving customers out of the area.

"It's on almost a nightly basis where we are over there trying to stop bums from fighting and beating each other up," said Brett Strong, the owner of Mesa Theater.

Strong tells us that his concerns center around an area right across from his business.

“A lot of our patrons like to go to Baron’s, across the breezeway,” Strong said. “They are scared to go back and forth between the two bars, because that area is always full of the homeless."

It’s a concern echoed by local artist and resident Ryan Harrison.

"I’ve been threatened to be beat up,” Harrison said. “I’ve walked through there with my guitar and merchandise and been threatened to be robbed.”

They tell us that walking through the breezeway in the morning, can be dangerous.

“I find used syringes, used up drug bindles lying on the ground,” Strong said. “I pick them up and throw them away because there are kids playing there sometimes.”

The problem they say isn't being homeless, but rather the behavior.

“The panhandling isn't normal,” Harrison said. “It is incredibly aggressive and very in your face.”

The city has tried to combat the problem, enacting ordinances. Officials have also tried piping music through public restrooms to make them less desirable to hang out in, and have even set up homeless outreach training and teams for our local police.

“The homeless vagrancy committee pinpointed some areas that we believe can impact some of these behaviors,” explained Dustin Bovee, with the Grand Junction Police Community Resource Unit.

Police said on average they respond to 10 to 12 calls dealing with intoxication and harassment among other things, on Main Street over the course of the weekend.

Officials said they are working on the issue, with something called CPTED. That's crime prevention through environmental design. Police say the homeless used to gather in the breezeway to charge their cell phones.

“We worked with the property owners and they moved those boxes and they cut the power to a lot of those to deter those folks from coming to the area,” Bovee said.

One local woman who has been homeless tells us, panhandling is oftentimes necessary.

"We have to have money to survive. We would love to have you guys step in our footprints,” said Marcia Webster. “Some of them have lost their jobs...some are families out there with kids that don't have a place to live because of the economics now.”

Marcia is now volunteering, trying to get back up on her feet. She says, homelessness in the public eye is tough.

“It felt like, no one cared about you,” she explained. “Everybody looked at you very differently. They treat you like a plague.”

It’s a problem in our community, with no clear solution.

“I don't think the problem has escalated to the point that you should be afraid, but people are afraid,” Harrison said. “It’s driving them away from downtown which is what I am most upset about."

With it feeling like less people are visiting downtown, businesses are feeling the effects.

“People just don't want to come down here and be bothered,” Strong said. “I am a firm believer in that.”

The Grand Junction Police Department said it is also working on creating more housing to fight the growing problem of homelessness.

November has been proclaimed ‘Homeless and Runaway Youth Awareness Month’ in Mesa County, encouraging residents to support Mesa County Youth.