With public camping a felony, Tennessee homeless seek refuge

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Miranda Atnip lost her dwelling during the coronavirus pandemic after her boyfriend moved out and he or she fell behind on bills. Living in a car, the 34-year-old worries day by day about getting cash for meals, finding someplace to bathe, and saving up sufficient money for an condominium where her three kids can dwell with her again.

Now she has a brand new fear: Tennessee is about to become the first U.S. state to make it a felony to camp on native public property equivalent to 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 legislation and mentioned he doesn’t anticipate this one to be enforced a lot, either. Neither does Luke Eldridge, a person who has labored with homeless individuals in the city of Cookeville and helps Bailey’s plan — partly because he hopes it would spur individuals who care in regards to 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 as much as six years in jail and the loss of voting rights.

“It’s going to be up to prosecutors ... if they wish to subject a felony,” Bailey said. “But it surely’s solely going to return to that if folks really don’t want to move.”

After several years of regular decline, homelessness in the United States began rising in 2017. A survey in January 2020 discovered for the first time that the number of unsheltered homeless folks exceeded those in shelters. The problem was exacerbated by COVID-19, with shelters limiting capacity.

Public strain to do one thing concerning the growing number of highly seen homeless encampments has pushed even many traditionally liberal cities to clear them. Although camping has typically been regulated by native vagrancy laws, Texas passed a statewide ban final yr. Municipalities that fail to implement the ban threat losing state funding. A number of other states have launched related bills, however Tennessee is the one one to make camping a felony.

Bailey’s district includes Cookeville, a metropolis of about 35,000 folks between Nashville and Knoxville, where the local newspaper has chronicled growing concern with the rising number of homeless folks. The Herald-Citizen reported last yr that complaints about panhandlers nearly doubled between 2019 and 2020, from 157 to 300. In 2021, the city installed indicators encouraging residents to offer to charities instead of panhandlers. And the City Council twice thought of panhandling bans.

The Republican lawmaker acknowledges that complaints from Cookeville obtained his consideration. City council members have advised him that Nashville ships its homeless right here, Bailey said. It’s a rumor many in Cookeville have heard and Bailey appears to believe. When Nashville fenced off a downtown park for renovation lately, the homeless people who frequented it disappeared. “The place did they go?” Bailey requested.

Atnip laughed at the thought of individuals shipped in from Nashville. She was dwelling in nearby Monterey when she misplaced her house and needed to send her youngsters to dwell along with her mother and father. She has received some government assist, however not sufficient to get her again on her ft, she mentioned. At one point she acquired a housing voucher but couldn’t find a landlord who would settle for it. She and her new husband saved sufficient to finance a used automotive and had been working as supply drivers till it broke down. Now she’s afraid they will lose the car and have to maneuver to a tent, although she isn’t positive where they may pitch it.

“It looks like as soon as one factor goes fallacious, it form of snowballs,” Atnip stated. “We had been making a living with DoorDash. Our payments had been paid. We have been saving. Then the automobile goes kaput and every part goes dangerous.”

Eldridge, who has worked with Cookeville’s homeless for a decade, is an sudden advocate of the camping ban. He said he desires to continue helping the homeless, however some individuals aren’t motivated to improve their situation. Some are addicted to drugs, he mentioned, and a few are hiding from regulation enforcement. Eldridge estimates there are about 60 people dwelling outdoors kind of completely in Cookeville, and he knows all of them.

“Most of them have been here a number of years, and never as soon as have they asked for housing help,” he stated.

Eldridge is aware of his position is unpopular with other advocates.

“The massive drawback with this regulation is that it does nothing to unravel homelessness. The truth is, it's going to make the issue worse,” mentioned Bobby Watts, CEO of the Nationwide Healthcare for the Homeless Council. “Having a felony on your report makes it exhausting to qualify for some varieties of housing, tougher to get a job, harder to qualify for advantages.”

Not everyone needs to be in a crowded shelter with a curfew, but folks will move off the streets given the appropriate alternatives, Watts stated. Homelessness among U.S. military veterans, for example, has been lower almost in half over the previous decade by means of a combination of housing subsidies and social services.

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

Tina Lomax, who runs Seeds of Hope of Tennessee in nearby Sparta, was once homeless together with her kids. Many people are only one paycheck or one tragedy away from being on the streets, she mentioned. Even in her community of 5,000, inexpensive housing could be very exhausting to come by.

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

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

He hopes the brand new legislation will spur a few of its opponents to work with him on long-term solutions for Cookeville’s homeless. If all of them labored together it might imply “plenty of resources and attainable funding sources to help those in want,” he said.

However different advocates don’t suppose threatening individuals with a felony is an effective manner to help them.

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