Light, and dark, at ends of Tunnel Road: Hope for the homeless, but also drugs, squalor and crime.

The pre-lunch quiet at the Panera Bread near the Asheville Mall on South Tunnel Road was suddenly broken by explosive curses from an apparently homeless woman being ushered out the front door.

She had spent a Wednesday morning sitting in a booth, napping, with her arms pulled inside her baggy blue T-shirt. She was asked to leave after disappearing for a long visit in the restroom and being found there naked, said a Panera employee, Ashley Tucker.

Similar incidents happen almost daily, Tucker said, shrugging her shoulders…

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