With public tenting a felony, Tennessee homeless seek refuge

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Miranda Atnip lost her dwelling in the course of the coronavirus pandemic after her boyfriend moved out and he or she fell behind on bills. Dwelling in a automotive, the 34-year-old worries daily about getting money for meals, finding someplace to shower, and saving up enough money for an condo where her three kids can reside along with her again.

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

“Honestly, it’s going to be hard,” Atnip said of the regulation, 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 enlargement, Sen. Paul Bailey noted that nobody has been convicted below that legislation and said he doesn’t anticipate this one to be enforced a lot, either. Neither does Luke Eldridge, a person who has labored with homeless individuals within the metropolis of Cookeville and supports Bailey’s plan — in part because he hopes it would spur people who care about the homeless to work with him on long-term solutions.

The legislation requires that violators receive not less than 24 hours notice earlier than an arrest. The felony charge 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 wish to challenge a felony,” Bailey mentioned. “Nevertheless it’s only going to return to that if individuals actually don’t want to transfer.”

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

Public pressure to do something concerning the growing number of highly visible homeless encampments has pushed even many historically liberal cities to clear them. Though camping has usually been regulated by local vagrancy legal guidelines, Texas passed a statewide ban last yr. Municipalities that fail to implement the ban danger dropping state funding. Several other states have introduced comparable payments, however Tennessee is the only one to make tenting a felony.

Bailey’s district consists of Cookeville, a city of about 35,000 people between Nashville and Knoxville, the place the native newspaper has chronicled rising concern with the increasing variety 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, town put in signs encouraging residents to provide to charities as a substitute of panhandlers. And the Metropolis Council twice considered panhandling bans.

The Republican lawmaker acknowledges that complaints from Cookeville acquired his consideration. City council members have told him that Nashville ships its homeless right here, Bailey stated. It’s a rumor many in Cookeville have heard and Bailey seems to believe. When Nashville fenced off a downtown park for renovation recently, the homeless individuals who frequented it disappeared. “Where did they go?” Bailey requested.

Atnip laughed at the thought of people shipped in from Nashville. She was residing in nearby Monterey when she misplaced her house and had to send her youngsters to reside with her dad and mom. She has obtained some authorities assist, but not enough to get her back on her ft, she said. At one point she obtained a housing voucher however couldn’t discover a landlord who would settle for it. She and her new husband saved enough to finance a used automobile and were working as supply drivers till it broke down. Now she’s afraid they are going to lose the car and have to maneuver to a tent, although she isn’t positive where they'll pitch it.

“It looks like once one factor goes mistaken, it sort of snowballs,” Atnip said. “We had been making a living with DoorDash. Our bills were paid. We had been saving. Then the automobile goes kaput and every part goes bad.”

Eldridge, who has worked with Cookeville’s homeless for a decade, is an surprising advocate of the camping ban. He said he wants to proceed helping the homeless, but some individuals aren’t motivated to improve their scenario. Some are addicted to medication, he stated, and some are hiding from law enforcement. Eldridge estimates there are about 60 individuals living exterior more or less completely in Cookeville, and he knows them all.

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

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

“The massive downside with this law is that it does nothing to unravel homelessness. In fact, it'll make the problem worse,” said Bobby Watts, CEO of the National Healthcare for the Homeless Council. “Having a felony in your file makes it laborious to qualify for some sorts of housing, harder to get a job, harder to qualify for advantages.”

Not everybody needs to be in a crowded shelter with a curfew, however individuals will transfer off the streets given the correct alternatives, Watts said. Homelessness among U.S. army veterans, for example, has been cut nearly in half over the past decade by way of a mix 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 nearby Sparta, was as soon as homeless together with her children. Many individuals are just one paycheck or one tragedy away from being on the streets, she mentioned. Even in her group of 5,000, inexpensive housing could be very arduous to come by.

“When you have a felony in your file — holy smokes!” she said.

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 people,” he stated of Cookeville legislation enforcement. But he doesn’t know what would possibly occur in other elements of the state.

He hopes the brand new regulation will spur some of its opponents to work with him on long-term solutions for Cookeville’s homeless. If they all worked collectively it might imply “a lot of assets and possible funding sources to help those in need,” he said.

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

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