With public tenting a felony, Tennessee homeless seek refuge

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Miranda Atnip misplaced her residence through the coronavirus pandemic after her boyfriend moved out and he or she fell behind on payments. Residing in a automotive, the 34-year-old worries day by day about getting cash for food, finding somewhere to shower, and saving up sufficient cash for an apartment where her three youngsters can stay with her again.

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

“Truthfully, it’s going to be onerous,” Atnip mentioned of the law, 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 growth, Sen. Paul Bailey famous that no one has been convicted below that law and mentioned he doesn’t count on this one to be enforced a lot, either. Neither does Luke Eldridge, a person who has worked with homeless individuals in the city of Cookeville and supports Bailey’s plan — in part because he hopes it will spur people who care about the homeless to work with him on long-term options.

The legislation requires that violators obtain a minimum of 24 hours notice before an arrest. The felony charge is punishable by as much as six years in jail and the lack of voting rights.

“It’s going to be as much as prosecutors ... if they need to issue a felony,” Bailey mentioned. “But it surely’s solely going to come back to that if folks actually don’t wish to move.”

After several years of regular decline, homelessness in america began rising in 2017. A survey in January 2020 discovered for the primary time that the number of unsheltered homeless people exceeded these in shelters. The problem was exacerbated by COVID-19, with shelters limiting capability.

Public stress to do one thing concerning the growing variety of extremely visible homeless encampments has pushed even many historically liberal cities to clear them. Though camping has typically been regulated by native vagrancy laws, Texas passed a statewide ban last 12 months. Municipalities that fail to implement the ban danger dropping state funding. A number of different states have introduced related bills, but Tennessee is the one one to make camping a felony.

Bailey’s district includes Cookeville, a metropolis of about 35,000 individuals between Nashville and Knoxville, where the native newspaper has chronicled growing concern with the growing variety of homeless people. The Herald-Citizen reported final yr that complaints about panhandlers practically doubled between 2019 and 2020, from 157 to 300. In 2021, the town put in signs 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 bought his attention. Metropolis council members have instructed 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 not too long ago, the homeless individuals who frequented it disappeared. “The place did they go?” Bailey requested.

Atnip laughed on the concept of people shipped in from Nashville. She was dwelling in nearby Monterey when she lost her home and had to ship her youngsters to stay together with her dad and mom. She has received some authorities assist, however not sufficient to get her again on her ft, she stated. At one point she acquired a housing voucher however couldn’t discover a landlord who would accept it. She and her new husband saved sufficient to finance a used car and were working as delivery drivers till it broke down. Now she’s afraid they will lose the car and have to move to a tent, though she isn’t certain the place they may pitch it.

“It looks like once one factor goes wrong, it sort of snowballs,” Atnip stated. “We have been getting cash with DoorDash. Our bills were paid. We have 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 surprising advocate of the camping ban. He stated he needs to continue helping the homeless, but some individuals aren’t motivated to improve their scenario. Some are addicted to medication, he mentioned, and some are hiding from regulation enforcement. Eldridge estimates there are about 60 people residing outdoors roughly permanently in Cookeville, and he knows them all.

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

Eldridge knows his position is unpopular with other advocates.

“The large drawback with this legislation is that it does nothing to solve homelessness. In truth, it should make the problem worse,” said Bobby Watts, CEO of the Nationwide Healthcare for the Homeless Council. “Having a felony on your report makes it arduous to qualify for some forms of housing, harder to get a job, tougher to qualify for benefits.”

Not everyone desires to be in a crowded shelter with a curfew, but people will transfer off the streets given the right alternatives, Watts mentioned. Homelessness amongst U.S. navy veterans, for example, has been cut almost in half over the past decade by a mix of housing subsidies and social services.

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

Tina Lomax, who runs Seeds of Hope of Tennessee in nearby Sparta, was once homeless with her kids. Many individuals are only one paycheck or one tragedy away from being on the streets, she stated. Even in her neighborhood of 5,000, reasonably priced housing may be very arduous to return by.

“In case you have a felony in your report — holy smokes!” she said.

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 here rounding up homeless folks,” he said of Cookeville law enforcement. But he doesn’t know what might occur in other elements of the state.

He hopes the new regulation will spur a few of its opponents to work with him on long-term solutions for Cookeville’s homeless. If they all labored together it would imply “lots of resources and attainable funding sources to help these in need,” he mentioned.

But different advocates don’t suppose threatening individuals with a felony is a good way to assist them.

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