With public camping a felony, Tennessee homeless seek refuge

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Miranda Atnip misplaced her dwelling through the coronavirus pandemic after her boyfriend moved out and she fell behind on bills. Dwelling in a automobile, the 34-year-old worries daily about getting cash for meals, discovering someplace to bathe, and saving up enough cash for an residence where her three kids can live together with her once more.

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

“Actually, it’s going to be arduous,” Atnip mentioned of the law, 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 growth, Sen. Paul Bailey famous that no one has been convicted underneath that law and mentioned he doesn’t count on this one to be enforced much, either. Neither does Luke Eldridge, a person who has worked with homeless individuals in the metropolis of Cookeville and supports Bailey’s plan — partially as a result of he hopes it will spur people who care concerning the homeless to work with him on long-term solutions.

The legislation requires that violators obtain no less than 24 hours discover before an arrest. The felony cost is punishable by as much as six years in jail and the loss of voting rights.

“It’s going to be as much as prosecutors ... if they need to problem a felony,” Bailey said. “However it’s solely going to come to that if people actually don’t want to transfer.”

After a number of years of regular decline, homelessness in the US started growing in 2017. A survey in January 2020 discovered for the primary time that the number of unsheltered homeless individuals exceeded these in shelters. The issue was exacerbated by COVID-19, with shelters limiting capability.

Public pressure to do one thing about the growing variety of highly visible homeless encampments has pushed even many traditionally liberal cities to clear them. Although camping has generally been regulated by local vagrancy laws, Texas passed a statewide ban final yr. Municipalities that fail to enforce the ban danger dropping state funding. Several other states have launched related bills, however Tennessee is the one one to make tenting a felony.

Bailey’s district contains Cookeville, a city of about 35,000 folks between Nashville and Knoxville, the place the local newspaper has chronicled rising concern with the increasing variety of homeless people. The Herald-Citizen reported final 12 months that complaints about panhandlers practically doubled between 2019 and 2020, from 157 to 300. In 2021, the city put in signs encouraging residents to offer to charities as a substitute of panhandlers. And the Metropolis Council twice considered panhandling bans.

The Republican lawmaker acknowledges that complaints from Cookeville received his consideration. City council members have advised him that Nashville ships its homeless right here, Bailey mentioned. It’s a rumor many in Cookeville have heard and Bailey appears to imagine. 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 on the concept of individuals shipped in from Nashville. She was residing in close by Monterey when she misplaced her house and had to send her youngsters to stay along with her dad and mom. She has obtained some authorities help, but not enough to get her again on her feet, she said. At one point she obtained 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 were 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, though she isn’t sure where they are going to pitch it.

“It looks like as soon as one factor goes fallacious, it sort of snowballs,” Atnip mentioned. “We have been creating wealth with DoorDash. Our payments were paid. We have been saving. Then the car goes kaput and all the things goes dangerous.”

Eldridge, who has labored with Cookeville’s homeless for a decade, is an sudden advocate of the tenting ban. He stated he wants to proceed helping the homeless, however some folks aren’t motivated to enhance their scenario. Some are addicted to medicine, he stated, and some are hiding from regulation enforcement. Eldridge estimates there are about 60 people residing outside kind of completely in Cookeville, and he is aware of all of them.

“Most of them have been right here a number of years, and not as soon as have they asked for housing assist,” he stated.

Eldridge knows his position is unpopular with other advocates.

“The large downside with this law is that it does nothing to resolve homelessness. In actual fact, it is going to make the problem worse,” stated Bobby Watts, CEO of the National Healthcare for the Homeless Council. “Having a felony on your record makes it laborious to qualify for some types of housing, harder to get a job, more durable 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 best opportunities, Watts said. Homelessness amongst U.S. navy veterans, for instance, has been lower nearly in half over the previous decade by way of a combination of housing subsidies and social providers.

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

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

“If in case you have a felony in your record — 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 right here rounding up homeless folks,” he stated of Cookeville regulation enforcement. However he doesn’t know what would possibly occur in other elements of the state.

He hopes the brand new law 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 might imply “a whole lot of sources and potential funding sources to assist these in need,” he stated.

However different advocates don’t suppose threatening people with a felony is an efficient means to help them.

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