With public tenting a felony, Tennessee homeless seek refuge

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Miranda Atnip misplaced her home through the coronavirus pandemic after her boyfriend moved out and she fell behind on bills. Residing in a automotive, the 34-year-old worries daily about getting cash for meals, finding somewhere to shower, and saving up enough cash for an residence the place her three children can reside with her once more.

Now she has a brand new worry: Tennessee is about to grow to be the first U.S. state to make it a felony to camp on local public property akin to parks.

“Actually, it’s going to be exhausting,” Atnip said of the legislation, which takes effect 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 nobody has been convicted below that regulation and said he doesn’t anticipate this one to be enforced a lot, both. Neither does Luke Eldridge, a man who has worked with homeless folks in the city of Cookeville and helps Bailey’s plan — in part because he hopes it'll spur individuals who care in regards to the homeless to work with him on long-term solutions.

The regulation requires that violators obtain no less than 24 hours discover earlier than an arrest. The felony cost is punishable by up to six years in prison and the lack of voting rights.

“It’s going to be up to prosecutors ... if they wish to situation a felony,” Bailey stated. “However it’s solely going to come to that if folks 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 found for the first time that the number of unsheltered homeless individuals exceeded those in shelters. The issue was exacerbated by COVID-19, with shelters limiting capacity.

Public strain to do one thing concerning the increasing number of highly seen homeless encampments has pushed even many traditionally liberal cities to clear them. Although camping has typically been regulated by local vagrancy laws, Texas passed a statewide ban final year. Municipalities that fail to enforce the ban risk dropping state funding. Several other states have launched related payments, but Tennessee is the one one to make tenting a felony.

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

The Republican lawmaker acknowledges that complaints from Cookeville got his attention. City council members have instructed him that Nashville ships its homeless right 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 just lately, the homeless people who frequented it disappeared. “Where did they go?” Bailey asked.

Atnip laughed on the concept of people shipped in from Nashville. She was dwelling in close by Monterey when she lost her dwelling and had to ship her kids to dwell together with her parents. She has received some government assist, however not enough to get her again on her toes, she said. At one level she received a housing voucher however couldn’t find a landlord who would settle for it. She and her new husband saved sufficient to finance a used automotive and have been working as supply drivers till it broke down. Now she’s afraid they are going to lose the automotive and have to maneuver to a tent, although she isn’t certain where they are going to pitch it.

“It seems like as soon as one thing goes incorrect, it sort of snowballs,” Atnip mentioned. “We have been making a living with DoorDash. Our payments were paid. We have been saving. Then the automobile goes kaput and every little thing goes dangerous.”

Eldridge, who has labored with Cookeville’s homeless for a decade, is an unexpected advocate of the camping ban. He stated he wants to continue helping the homeless, but some people aren’t motivated to enhance their situation. Some are addicted to medicine, he stated, and some are hiding from law enforcement. Eldridge estimates there are about 60 individuals dwelling outside kind of permanently in Cookeville, and he is aware of them all.

“Most of them have been right here a number of years, and not once have they requested for housing assist,” he said.

Eldridge knows his place is unpopular with other advocates.

“The massive downside with this regulation is that it does nothing to unravel homelessness. In truth, 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 exhausting to qualify for some kinds of housing, more durable to get a job, tougher to qualify for benefits.”

Not everyone needs to be in a crowded shelter with a curfew, however folks will move off the streets given the right alternatives, Watts mentioned. Homelessness amongst U.S. army veterans, for example, has been cut nearly in half over the previous decade by way of a combination of housing subsidies and social companies.

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

Tina Lomax, who runs Seeds of Hope of Tennessee in nearby Sparta, was as soon as homeless with her children. Many people are just one paycheck or one tragedy away from being on the streets, she mentioned. Even in her community of 5,000, reasonably priced housing could be very onerous to come by.

“When you've got a felony on your record — holy smokes!” she stated.

Eldridge, like Sen. Bailey, said he doesn’t expect 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 individuals,” he mentioned of Cookeville regulation enforcement. But he doesn’t know what may happen in other components of the state.

He hopes the brand new legislation will spur some of its opponents to work with him on long-term solutions for Cookeville’s homeless. If they all labored collectively it could mean “a lot of assets and potential funding sources to assist those in need,” he stated.

However other advocates don’t think threatening people with a felony is an efficient method to help them.

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