With public camping a felony, Tennessee homeless seek refuge

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Miranda Atnip misplaced her dwelling during the coronavirus pandemic after her boyfriend moved out and he or she fell behind on bills. Living in a car, the 34-year-old worries day-after-day about getting money for meals, discovering somewhere to shower, and saving up enough cash for an apartment where her three children can dwell together with her once more.

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

“Honestly, it’s going to be hard,” Atnip mentioned of the legislation, 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 enlargement, Sen. Paul Bailey famous that nobody has been convicted under that law and said he doesn’t anticipate this one to be enforced much, either. Neither does Luke Eldridge, a person who has worked with homeless people in the metropolis of Cookeville and helps Bailey’s plan — partially as a result of he hopes it can spur people who care in regards to the homeless to work with him on long-term solutions.

The law requires that violators receive not less than 24 hours notice before an arrest. The felony cost is punishable by as much as six years in prison and the loss of voting rights.

“It’s going to be as much as prosecutors ... in the event that they need to situation a felony,” Bailey mentioned. “But it surely’s only going to come to that if folks actually don’t wish to move.”

After a number of years of regular decline, homelessness in the United States began increasing 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 about the rising number of extremely visible homeless encampments has pushed even many traditionally liberal cities to clear them. Although tenting has typically been regulated by local vagrancy legal guidelines, Texas passed a statewide ban last year. Municipalities that fail to implement the ban risk losing state funding. A number of different states have launched similar payments, but Tennessee is the only one to make camping a felony.

Bailey’s district contains Cookeville, a metropolis of about 35,000 folks between Nashville and Knoxville, where the local newspaper has chronicled growing concern with the rising variety of homeless individuals. The Herald-Citizen reported last yr that complaints about panhandlers practically doubled between 2019 and 2020, from 157 to 300. In 2021, the town installed indicators encouraging residents to provide to charities as an alternative of panhandlers. And the City Council twice thought-about panhandling bans.

The Republican lawmaker acknowledges that complaints from Cookeville acquired his attention. 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 seems to believe. When Nashville fenced off a downtown park for renovation just lately, the homeless individuals who frequented it disappeared. “Where did they go?” Bailey asked.

Atnip laughed at the idea of individuals shipped in from Nashville. She was living in close by Monterey when she lost her home and had to send her youngsters to reside with her parents. She has acquired some government help, however not sufficient to get her again on her toes, 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 sufficient to finance a used automobile and had been working as supply drivers until it broke down. Now she’s afraid they may lose the automobile and have to move to a tent, though she isn’t sure the place they'll pitch it.

“It looks as if once one factor goes unsuitable, it kind of snowballs,” Atnip mentioned. “We had been earning money with DoorDash. Our bills have been paid. We were saving. Then the automobile goes kaput and all the pieces goes bad.”

Eldridge, who has labored with Cookeville’s homeless for a decade, is an surprising advocate of the tenting ban. He mentioned he desires to continue serving to the homeless, but some individuals aren’t motivated to improve their scenario. Some are addicted to medication, he mentioned, and some are hiding from law enforcement. Eldridge estimates there are about 60 individuals dwelling outdoors more or less permanently in Cookeville, and he knows all of them.

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

Eldridge knows his position is unpopular with other advocates.

“The massive drawback with this legislation is that it does nothing to solve homelessness. The truth is, it's going to make the problem worse,” mentioned Bobby Watts, CEO of the National Healthcare for the Homeless Council. “Having a felony on your record makes it arduous to qualify for some forms 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 suitable opportunities, Watts mentioned. Homelessness amongst U.S. navy veterans, for example, has been minimize practically in half over the past decade by way of a mix of housing subsidies and social services.

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

Tina Lomax, who runs Seeds of Hope of Tennessee in nearby Sparta, was as soon as homeless together with her kids. Many individuals are just one paycheck or one tragedy away from being on the streets, she said. Even in her community of 5,000, reasonably priced housing may be very laborious to come back by.

“You probably have a felony on your file — holy smokes!” she stated.

Eldridge, like Sen. Bailey, said 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 legislation enforcement. However he doesn’t know what may happen in different components of the state.

He hopes the new law will spur a few of its opponents to work with him on long-term solutions for Cookeville’s homeless. If all of them labored collectively it will mean “a whole lot of assets and doable funding sources to assist those in need,” he said.

But different advocates don’t think threatening folks with a felony is an effective manner to assist them.

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