With public tenting 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 she fell behind on bills. Residing in a automobile, the 34-year-old worries on daily basis about getting cash for meals, discovering someplace to bathe, and saving up enough money for an residence the place her three kids can dwell together with her once more.

Now she has a brand new worry: Tennessee is about to develop into the primary U.S. state to make it a felony to camp on local public property resembling parks.

“Honestly, it’s going to be onerous,” 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 enlargement, Sen. Paul Bailey famous that no one has been convicted beneath that legislation and mentioned he doesn’t count on this one to be enforced much, both. Neither does Luke Eldridge, a person who has worked with homeless individuals within the metropolis of Cookeville and supports Bailey’s plan — in part as a result of he hopes it's going to spur individuals who care in regards to the homeless to work with him on long-term solutions.

The regulation requires that violators receive not less than 24 hours notice 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 ... in the event that they want to problem a felony,” Bailey mentioned. “But it surely’s only going to come to that if folks actually don’t need to transfer.”

After several years of regular decline, homelessness in the USA started growing in 2017. A survey in January 2020 discovered for the primary time that the number of unsheltered homeless people exceeded those in shelters. The issue was exacerbated by COVID-19, with shelters limiting capacity.

Public stress to do one thing about the increasing variety of extremely visible homeless encampments has pushed even many historically liberal cities to clear them. Though camping has generally been regulated by native vagrancy laws, Texas handed a statewide ban final year. Municipalities that fail to implement the ban threat shedding state funding. Several other states have introduced similar payments, however Tennessee is the only one to make tenting a felony.

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

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

Atnip laughed on the thought of individuals shipped in from Nashville. She was dwelling in nearby Monterey when she misplaced her house and had to ship her children to stay together with her dad and mom. She has received some authorities assist, however not sufficient to get her again on her toes, she stated. At one point she acquired a housing voucher however couldn’t find a landlord who would accept it. She and her new husband saved enough to finance a used automobile and were working as delivery drivers until it broke down. Now she’s afraid they may lose the automobile and have to maneuver to a tent, though she isn’t positive where they are going to pitch it.

“It looks like once one factor goes wrong, it kind of snowballs,” Atnip mentioned. “We have been getting cash with DoorDash. Our payments were paid. We were saving. Then the car goes kaput and the whole lot goes bad.”

Eldridge, who has labored with Cookeville’s homeless for a decade, is an surprising advocate of the tenting ban. He stated he needs to continue helping the homeless, but some folks aren’t motivated to improve their situation. Some are addicted to medicine, he mentioned, and some are hiding from law enforcement. Eldridge estimates there are about 60 people dwelling outdoors roughly permanently in Cookeville, and he is aware of all of them.

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

Eldridge knows his position is unpopular with different advocates.

“The massive problem with this legislation is that it does nothing to resolve homelessness. Actually, it would make the problem worse,” stated Bobby Watts, CEO of the National Healthcare for the Homeless Council. “Having a felony on your document makes it onerous to qualify for some varieties of housing, more durable to get a job, tougher to qualify for advantages.”

Not everyone wants to be in a crowded shelter with a curfew, however folks will transfer off the streets given the best alternatives, Watts said. Homelessness among U.S. navy veterans, for instance, has been minimize almost in half over the previous decade by way of a mix of housing subsidies and social providers.

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

Tina Lomax, who runs Seeds of Hope of Tennessee in close by Sparta, was as soon as homeless with her youngsters. Many individuals are just 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 laborious to return by.

“When you have a felony on your record — holy smokes!” she mentioned.

Eldridge, like Sen. Bailey, stated 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 folks,” he said of Cookeville legislation enforcement. But he doesn’t know what may occur in different elements of the state.

He hopes the brand new regulation will spur some of its opponents to work with him on long-term options for Cookeville’s homeless. If all of them worked together it will imply “a whole lot of resources and doable funding sources to help these in need,” he mentioned.

But other advocates don’t assume threatening individuals with a felony is an efficient manner to help them.

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