With public camping a felony, Tennessee homeless seek refuge

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Miranda Atnip misplaced her residence through the coronavirus pandemic after her boyfriend moved out and she fell behind on payments. Dwelling in a automobile, the 34-year-old worries daily about getting money for food, discovering somewhere to shower, and saving up enough cash for an house the place her three kids can reside together with her again.

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

“Honestly, it’s going to be arduous,” Atnip said 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 expansion, Sen. Paul Bailey noted that no one has been convicted below that law and said he doesn’t expect this one to be enforced much, either. Neither does Luke Eldridge, a person who has worked with homeless folks in the metropolis of Cookeville and supports Bailey’s plan — partially as a result of he hopes it will spur people who care in regards to the homeless to work with him on long-term solutions.

The law requires that violators obtain at the least 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 want to problem a felony,” Bailey mentioned. “But it surely’s solely going to come back to that if individuals really don’t wish to move.”

After several years of regular decline, homelessness in the US began rising 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 capability.

Public stress to do something about the growing number of highly seen homeless encampments has pushed even many traditionally liberal cities to clear them. Though tenting has usually been regulated by local vagrancy laws, Texas passed a statewide ban last yr. Municipalities that fail to enforce the ban risk shedding state funding. Several different states have launched similar bills, however Tennessee is the one one to make tenting a felony.

Bailey’s district includes Cookeville, a city of about 35,000 folks between Nashville and Knoxville, the place the native newspaper has chronicled rising concern with the growing variety of homeless folks. The Herald-Citizen reported last 12 months that complaints about panhandlers almost doubled between 2019 and 2020, from 157 to 300. In 2021, the city put in indicators encouraging residents to provide to charities instead of panhandlers. And the Metropolis Council twice considered panhandling bans.

The Republican lawmaker acknowledges that complaints from Cookeville obtained his consideration. Metropolis 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 lately, the homeless people who frequented it disappeared. “The place did they go?” Bailey asked.

Atnip laughed on the idea of individuals shipped in from Nashville. She was dwelling in close by Monterey when she lost her residence and needed to send her youngsters to live along with her mother and father. She has received some government help, but not enough to get her again on her feet, she mentioned. At one level she received a housing voucher but couldn’t find a landlord who would settle for it. She and her new husband saved enough to finance a used car and were working as supply drivers until it broke down. Now she’s afraid they'll lose the automobile and have to maneuver to a tent, although she isn’t certain the place they'll pitch it.

“It looks as if once one thing goes mistaken, it sort of snowballs,” Atnip stated. “We were creating wealth with DoorDash. Our payments were paid. We have been saving. Then the car goes kaput and every thing goes bad.”

Eldridge, who has labored with Cookeville’s homeless for a decade, is an unexpected advocate of the tenting ban. He mentioned he desires to continue serving to the homeless, however some people aren’t motivated to enhance their situation. Some are addicted to drugs, he stated, and some are hiding from law enforcement. Eldridge estimates there are about 60 folks residing outside more or less completely in Cookeville, and he knows all of them.

“Most of them have been here a couple of years, and never as soon as have they requested for housing assist,” he stated.

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

“The large drawback with this legislation is that it does nothing to resolve homelessness. The truth is, it's going to make the problem worse,” mentioned Bobby Watts, CEO of the Nationwide Healthcare for the Homeless Council. “Having a felony on your file makes it exhausting to qualify for some varieties of housing, tougher to get a job, tougher to qualify for advantages.”

Not everybody wants to be in a crowded shelter with a curfew, however folks will move off the streets given the appropriate opportunities, Watts stated. Homelessness amongst U.S. navy veterans, for instance, has been minimize nearly in half over the past decade through a mix of housing subsidies and social companies.

“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 along with her kids. Many people are only one paycheck or one tragedy away from being on the streets, she stated. Even in her community of 5,000, affordable housing may be very onerous to return by.

“When you have a felony on your document — holy smokes!” she stated.

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 here rounding up homeless individuals,” he mentioned of Cookeville law enforcement. But he doesn’t know what may happen in other components of the state.

He hopes the brand new legislation will spur a few of its opponents to work with him on long-term options for Cookeville’s homeless. If they all worked collectively it will mean “a whole lot of assets and possible funding sources to help those in want,” he mentioned.

But other advocates don’t suppose threatening individuals with a felony is an effective means to assist them.

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