With public camping a felony, Tennessee homeless seek refuge

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Miranda Atnip misplaced her dwelling in the course of the coronavirus pandemic after her boyfriend moved out and he or she fell behind on bills. Residing in a automotive, the 34-year-old worries on daily basis about getting cash for meals, discovering somewhere to shower, and saving up enough cash for an residence where her three children can stay together with her once more.

Now she has a new worry: Tennessee is about to turn out to be the primary U.S. state to make it a felony to camp on native public property reminiscent of parks.

“Honestly, it’s going to be arduous,” Atnip said of the legislation, 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 growth, Sen. Paul Bailey noted that nobody has been convicted below that law and stated he doesn’t count on this one to be enforced a lot, either. Neither does Luke Eldridge, a man who has labored with homeless people within the metropolis of Cookeville and helps Bailey’s plan — partly because he hopes it is going to spur individuals who care concerning the homeless to work with him on long-term solutions.

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

“It’s going to be up to prosecutors ... in the event that they need to challenge a felony,” Bailey mentioned. “Nevertheless it’s only going to come back to that if individuals actually don’t wish to move.”

After several years of steady decline, homelessness in the US began increasing in 2017. A survey in January 2020 found for the primary time that the variety of unsheltered homeless people exceeded these in shelters. The issue was exacerbated by COVID-19, with shelters limiting capacity.

Public stress to do one thing in regards to the increasing variety of extremely seen homeless encampments has pushed even many traditionally liberal cities to clear them. Though camping has usually been regulated by local vagrancy laws, Texas passed a statewide ban last 12 months. Municipalities that fail to enforce the ban threat losing state funding. A number of different states have introduced similar bills, but Tennessee is the only one to make camping a felony.

Bailey’s district consists of Cookeville, a city of about 35,000 folks between Nashville and Knoxville, where the local newspaper has chronicled growing concern with the rising variety of homeless people. The Herald-Citizen reported final year that complaints about panhandlers practically doubled between 2019 and 2020, from 157 to 300. In 2021, the town put in signs encouraging residents to offer to charities as an alternative of panhandlers. And the City Council twice thought-about panhandling bans.

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

Atnip laughed on the thought of people shipped in from Nashville. She was living in nearby Monterey when she misplaced her residence and had to send her children to dwell along with her dad and mom. She has acquired some government assist, but not enough to get her again on her toes, she stated. At one point she received a housing voucher however couldn’t find a landlord who would settle for it. She and her new husband saved enough to finance a used car and have been working as delivery drivers till it broke down. Now she’s afraid they will lose the automobile and have to move to a tent, although she isn’t certain the place they will pitch it.

“It looks as if once one factor goes incorrect, it form of snowballs,” Atnip said. “We had been making a living with DoorDash. Our bills were paid. We have been saving. Then the automobile goes kaput and everything goes unhealthy.”

Eldridge, who has labored with Cookeville’s homeless for a decade, is an surprising advocate of the camping ban. He stated he wants to continue helping the homeless, but some folks aren’t motivated to enhance their situation. Some are addicted to medicine, he said, and some are hiding from legislation enforcement. Eldridge estimates there are about 60 folks residing outside more or less completely in Cookeville, and he is aware of all of them.

“Most of them have been right here a couple of years, and never once have they requested for housing assist,” he mentioned.

Eldridge knows his position is unpopular with other advocates.

“The big problem with this law is that it does nothing to resolve homelessness. In reality, it would make the issue worse,” said Bobby Watts, CEO of the National Healthcare for the Homeless Council. “Having a felony on your record makes it onerous to qualify for some forms of housing, tougher to get a job, harder to qualify for benefits.”

Not everybody needs to be in a crowded shelter with a curfew, but folks will transfer off the streets given the correct opportunities, Watts mentioned. Homelessness among U.S. military veterans, for instance, has been lower nearly in half over the previous decade by a mix 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 nearby Sparta, was once homeless along with her children. Many people are only one paycheck or one tragedy away from being on the streets, she said. Even in her community of 5,000, inexpensive housing may be very exhausting to come by.

“If you have a felony on your file — holy smokes!” she said.

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

He hopes the new law will spur a few of its opponents to work with him on long-term solutions for Cookeville’s homeless. If all of them worked collectively it will mean “a lot of assets and doable funding sources to assist those in want,” he mentioned.

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

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