With public tenting a felony, Tennessee homeless seek refuge

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Miranda Atnip misplaced her dwelling throughout the coronavirus pandemic after her boyfriend moved out and he or she fell behind on payments. Dwelling in a automobile, the 34-year-old worries day by day about getting cash for food, finding someplace to shower, and saving up sufficient money for an residence where her three children can live along with her once more.

Now she has a brand new worry: Tennessee is about to change into the first U.S. state to make it a felony to camp on native public property corresponding to parks.

“Truthfully, it’s going to be arduous,” Atnip stated of the regulation, which takes impact July 1. “I don’t know where 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 beneath that legislation and mentioned he doesn’t count on this one to be enforced much, either. Neither does Luke Eldridge, a man who has worked with homeless folks in the metropolis of Cookeville and supports Bailey’s plan — partly as a result of he hopes it will spur people who care about the homeless to work with him on long-term options.

The regulation requires that violators receive a minimum of 24 hours notice earlier than an arrest. The felony cost is punishable by up to six years in jail and the lack of voting rights.

“It’s going to be up to prosecutors ... in the event that they want to difficulty a felony,” Bailey mentioned. “Nevertheless it’s solely going to return to that if individuals actually don’t need to move.”

After a number of years of steady decline, homelessness in america began rising in 2017. A survey in January 2020 found for the first time that the variety of unsheltered homeless people exceeded these in shelters. The problem was exacerbated by COVID-19, with shelters limiting capability.

Public stress to do something in regards to the increasing variety of extremely visible homeless encampments has pushed even many traditionally liberal cities to clear them. Although tenting has generally been regulated by native vagrancy legal guidelines, Texas handed a statewide ban last year. Municipalities that fail to enforce the ban threat losing state funding. Several other states have introduced related bills, however Tennessee is the one one to make camping a felony.

Bailey’s district consists of Cookeville, a city of about 35,000 individuals between Nashville and Knoxville, where the local newspaper has chronicled rising concern with the increasing number of homeless individuals. The Herald-Citizen reported final yr that complaints about panhandlers almost doubled between 2019 and 2020, from 157 to 300. In 2021, town put in signs 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 got his attention. Metropolis 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 seems to imagine. When Nashville fenced off a downtown park for renovation recently, the homeless individuals who frequented it disappeared. “The place did they go?” Bailey requested.

Atnip laughed at the concept of individuals shipped in from Nashville. She was dwelling in nearby Monterey when she lost her house and needed to ship her kids to live along with her dad and mom. She has received some government assist, however not sufficient to get her again on her feet, she mentioned. At one level she obtained a housing voucher however couldn’t discover a landlord who would accept it. She and her new husband saved sufficient to finance a used automobile and have been working as supply drivers until it broke down. Now she’s afraid they may lose the car and have to maneuver to a tent, although she isn’t sure where they may pitch it.

“It looks like once one factor goes fallacious, it type of snowballs,” Atnip mentioned. “We were being profitable with DoorDash. Our payments had been paid. We have been saving. Then the automotive goes kaput and all the things goes bad.”

Eldridge, who has labored with Cookeville’s homeless for a decade, is an sudden advocate of the tenting ban. He stated he needs to continue serving to the homeless, however some folks aren’t motivated to improve their scenario. Some are addicted to medication, he said, and a few are hiding from law enforcement. Eldridge estimates there are about 60 people living outside roughly completely in Cookeville, and he is aware of them all.

“Most of them have been right here a couple of years, and not once have they requested for housing help,” he mentioned.

Eldridge knows his place is unpopular with other advocates.

“The large downside with this legislation is that it does nothing to unravel homelessness. Actually, it should make the problem worse,” mentioned Bobby Watts, CEO of the Nationwide Healthcare for the Homeless Council. “Having a felony on your file makes it onerous to qualify for some kinds of housing, tougher to get a job, tougher to qualify for benefits.”

Not everybody desires to be in a crowded shelter with a curfew, but people will transfer off the streets given the correct alternatives, Watts mentioned. Homelessness amongst U.S. military veterans, for example, has been lower practically in half over the previous decade by a combination of housing subsidies and social companies.

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

Tina Lomax, who runs Seeds of Hope of Tennessee in close by Sparta, was once homeless along with her kids. Many individuals are only one paycheck or one tragedy away from being on the streets, she stated. Even in her group of 5,000, affordable housing is very laborious to return by.

“When you have a felony in your record — holy smokes!” she stated.

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

He hopes the new regulation will spur a few of its opponents to work with him on long-term options for Cookeville’s homeless. If all of them labored collectively it could mean “a variety of sources and possible funding sources to assist these in need,” he stated.

However other advocates don’t assume threatening folks with a felony is an efficient approach to help them.

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