With public tenting a felony, Tennessee homeless seek refuge

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Miranda Atnip lost her house in the course of the coronavirus pandemic after her boyfriend moved out and she or he fell behind on bills. Dwelling in a car, the 34-year-old worries every day about getting cash for food, discovering someplace to bathe, and saving up sufficient money for an apartment the place her three youngsters can stay with her again.

Now she has a new worry: Tennessee is about to become the primary U.S. state to make it a felony to camp on local public property such as parks.

“Honestly, it’s going to be hard,” Atnip stated of the law, which takes impact July 1. “I don’t know the place else to go.”

Tennessee already made it a felony in 2020 to camp on most state-owned property. In pushing the expansion, Sen. Paul Bailey noted that no one has been convicted below that regulation and stated he doesn’t count on this one to be enforced much, both. Neither does Luke Eldridge, a person who has worked with homeless individuals in the metropolis of Cookeville and supports Bailey’s plan — in part because he hopes it would spur people who care about the homeless to work with him on long-term solutions.

The legislation requires that violators receive at the very least 24 hours discover earlier than an arrest. The felony charge is punishable by up to six years in prison and the loss of voting rights.

“It’s going to be up to prosecutors ... if they want to difficulty a felony,” Bailey mentioned. “But it surely’s only going to come to that if people actually don’t wish to transfer.”

After several years of steady decline, homelessness in the US began rising in 2017. A survey in January 2020 discovered for the first time that the variety of unsheltered homeless folks exceeded those in shelters. The issue was exacerbated by COVID-19, with shelters limiting capability.

Public pressure to do one thing in regards to the growing variety of highly seen homeless encampments has pushed even many historically liberal cities to clear them. Although camping has generally been regulated by local vagrancy legal guidelines, Texas passed a statewide ban final yr. Municipalities that fail to enforce the ban danger shedding state funding. A number of different states have introduced comparable payments, but Tennessee is the one one to make tenting a felony.

Bailey’s district contains Cookeville, a metropolis of about 35,000 folks between Nashville and Knoxville, where the native newspaper has chronicled rising concern with the growing number of homeless folks. The Herald-Citizen reported final 12 months that complaints about panhandlers nearly doubled between 2019 and 2020, from 157 to 300. In 2021, the town put in indicators encouraging residents to give to charities instead of panhandlers. And the City Council twice thought-about panhandling bans.

The Republican lawmaker acknowledges that complaints from Cookeville received his consideration. City council members have told him that Nashville ships its homeless here, Bailey stated. It’s a rumor many in Cookeville have heard and Bailey appears to consider. When Nashville fenced off a downtown park for renovation not too long ago, the homeless individuals who frequented it disappeared. “The place did they go?” Bailey asked.

Atnip laughed at the idea of people shipped in from Nashville. She was dwelling in nearby Monterey when she lost her dwelling and needed to send her youngsters to live with her mother and father. She has received some authorities assist, however not enough to get her again on her feet, she stated. At one point she acquired a housing voucher but couldn’t discover a landlord who would accept it. She and her new husband saved sufficient to finance a used automobile and were working as supply drivers till it broke down. Now she’s afraid they'll lose the car and have to maneuver to a tent, though she isn’t sure the place they are going to pitch it.

“It seems like once one factor goes fallacious, it form of snowballs,” Atnip mentioned. “We were being profitable with DoorDash. Our bills were paid. We have been saving. Then the automobile goes kaput and every part goes dangerous.”

Eldridge, who has labored with Cookeville’s homeless for a decade, is an sudden advocate of the camping ban. He stated he wants to proceed serving to the homeless, however some individuals aren’t motivated to enhance their situation. Some are addicted to medicine, he mentioned, and some are hiding from regulation enforcement. Eldridge estimates there are about 60 folks living exterior more or less permanently in Cookeville, and he knows all of them.

“Most of them have been right here just a few years, and never as soon as have they asked for housing assist,” he said.

Eldridge knows his position is unpopular with different advocates.

“The large problem with this legislation is that it does nothing to resolve homelessness. In truth, it'll make the issue worse,” said Bobby Watts, CEO of the Nationwide Healthcare for the Homeless Council. “Having a felony in your file makes it hard to qualify for some kinds of housing, tougher to get a job, harder to qualify for benefits.”

Not everybody wants to be in a crowded shelter with a curfew, but individuals will move off the streets given the correct alternatives, Watts stated. Homelessness amongst U.S. military veterans, for instance, has been cut nearly in half over the past decade by means of a combination of housing subsidies and social providers.

“It’s not magic,” he stated. “What works for that population, works for every population.”

Tina Lomax, who runs Seeds of Hope of Tennessee in close by Sparta, was as soon as homeless with her kids. Many individuals are just one paycheck or one tragedy away from being on the streets, she stated. Even in her group of 5,000, reasonably priced housing could be very arduous to come by.

“In case you have a felony on your report — holy smokes!” she mentioned.

Eldridge, like Sen. Bailey, mentioned he doesn’t expect many individuals to be prosecuted for sleeping on public property. “I can promise, they’re not going to be out here rounding up homeless people,” he mentioned of Cookeville regulation enforcement. But he doesn’t know what may occur in different parts of the state.

He hopes the brand new regulation will spur some of its opponents to work with him on long-term solutions for Cookeville’s homeless. If they all worked together it will mean “a number of sources and potential funding sources to help those in want,” he mentioned.

However other advocates don’t suppose threatening individuals with a felony is an effective way to assist them.

“Criminalizing homelessness just makes individuals criminals,” Watts stated.