With public camping a felony, Tennessee homeless seek refuge

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Miranda Atnip lost her dwelling during the coronavirus pandemic after her boyfriend moved out and she or he fell behind on bills. Residing in a automobile, the 34-year-old worries day by day about getting cash for food, discovering someplace to bathe, and saving up enough money for an house where her three children can stay along with her again.

Now she has a new worry: Tennessee is about to turn out to be the first U.S. state to make it a felony to camp on native public property similar to parks.

“Truthfully, it’s going to be exhausting,” Atnip stated of the legislation, which takes effect 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 noted that no one has been convicted underneath that legislation and said he doesn’t anticipate this one to be enforced much, both. Neither does Luke Eldridge, a man who has labored with homeless people in the city of Cookeville and supports Bailey’s plan — partially because he hopes it will spur people who care in regards to the homeless to work with him on long-term solutions.

The legislation requires that violators receive not less than 24 hours discover earlier than an arrest. The felony charge is punishable by up to six years in jail and the loss of voting rights.

“It’s going to be as much as prosecutors ... if they need to difficulty a felony,” Bailey stated. “However it’s solely going to come to that if individuals really don’t wish to move.”

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

Public strain to do one thing about the increasing variety of extremely visible homeless encampments has pushed even many historically liberal cities to clear them. Though tenting has typically been regulated by local vagrancy laws, Texas handed a statewide ban final year. Municipalities that fail to implement the ban danger dropping state funding. Several other states have launched related bills, but Tennessee is the one one to make camping a felony.

Bailey’s district includes Cookeville, a metropolis of about 35,000 folks between Nashville and Knoxville, where the local newspaper has chronicled rising concern with the growing number of homeless folks. The Herald-Citizen reported final 12 months that complaints about panhandlers nearly doubled between 2019 and 2020, from 157 to 300. In 2021, the town installed signs encouraging residents to present to charities as an alternative of panhandlers. And the City Council twice considered panhandling bans.

The Republican lawmaker acknowledges that complaints from Cookeville got his consideration. Metropolis council members have informed him that Nashville ships its homeless here, Bailey mentioned. It’s a rumor many in Cookeville have heard and Bailey seems to consider. When Nashville fenced off a downtown park for renovation recently, the homeless people who frequented it disappeared. “The place did they go?” Bailey asked.

Atnip laughed at the thought of people shipped in from Nashville. She was living in close by Monterey when she misplaced her house and had to send her youngsters to reside with her dad and mom. She has received some authorities help, however not sufficient to get her again on her ft, she mentioned. At one point she obtained a housing voucher but couldn’t discover a landlord who would settle for it. She and her new husband saved sufficient to finance a used automobile 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, though she isn’t sure where they'll pitch it.

“It looks as if once one factor goes fallacious, it kind of snowballs,” Atnip mentioned. “We have been getting cash with DoorDash. Our bills had been paid. We had been saving. Then the automotive goes kaput and every thing goes dangerous.”

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

“Most of them have been right here a couple of years, and never once have they requested for housing assist,” he said.

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

“The large problem with this law is that it does nothing to resolve homelessness. In fact, it would make the issue worse,” mentioned Bobby Watts, CEO of the National Healthcare for the Homeless Council. “Having a felony on your report makes it hard to qualify for some types of housing, more durable to get a job, harder to qualify for benefits.”

Not everyone wants to be in a crowded shelter with a curfew, however individuals will move off the streets given the fitting opportunities, Watts mentioned. Homelessness amongst U.S. navy veterans, for example, has been reduce practically in half over the previous decade by a mixture of housing subsidies and social providers.

“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 together with her youngsters. Many individuals are only 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 come by.

“When you've got a felony in your document — holy smokes!” she mentioned.

Eldridge, like Sen. Bailey, mentioned he doesn’t anticipate 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 mentioned of Cookeville regulation enforcement. But he doesn’t know what would possibly occur in different elements of the state.

He hopes the new legislation will spur some of its opponents to work with him on long-term solutions for Cookeville’s homeless. If they all worked together it would mean “a variety of assets and attainable funding sources to assist those in need,” he said.

However other advocates don’t think threatening individuals with a felony is an efficient approach to assist them.

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