With public tenting a felony, Tennessee homeless seek refuge

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Miranda Atnip lost her house in the course of the coronavirus pandemic after her boyfriend moved out and he or she fell behind on bills. Residing in a automobile, the 34-year-old worries day by day about getting cash for food, finding someplace to shower, and saving up sufficient cash for an condominium where her three kids can reside together with her once more.

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

“Actually, it’s going to be laborious,” Atnip stated of the regulation, 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 famous that nobody has been convicted under that legislation and said he doesn’t expect this one to be enforced a lot, either. Neither does Luke Eldridge, a person who has labored with homeless individuals in the metropolis of Cookeville and helps Bailey’s plan — partially because he hopes it's going to spur individuals who care in regards to the homeless to work with him on long-term solutions.

The legislation requires that violators receive at the very least 24 hours notice before an arrest. The felony charge is punishable by as much as six years in prison and the loss of voting rights.

“It’s going to be up to prosecutors ... in the event that they wish to difficulty a felony,” Bailey stated. “But it’s only going to come to that if people actually don’t want to move.”

After a number of years of steady decline, homelessness in the United States began increasing in 2017. A survey in January 2020 discovered for the first time that the number of unsheltered homeless individuals exceeded these in shelters. The issue was exacerbated by COVID-19, with shelters limiting capacity.

Public pressure to do something concerning the rising number of highly seen homeless encampments has pushed even many historically liberal cities to clear them. Although camping has typically been regulated by local vagrancy laws, Texas passed a statewide ban final yr. Municipalities that fail to enforce the ban risk shedding state funding. A number of different states have introduced similar bills, but Tennessee is the only one to make tenting a felony.

Bailey’s district contains Cookeville, a metropolis of about 35,000 individuals between Nashville and Knoxville, the place the local newspaper has chronicled growing concern with the rising number of homeless people. The Herald-Citizen reported final 12 months 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 as a substitute of panhandlers. And the Metropolis Council twice thought-about panhandling bans.

The Republican lawmaker acknowledges that complaints from Cookeville received his attention. City council members have instructed him that Nashville ships its homeless here, Bailey said. It’s a rumor many in Cookeville have heard and Bailey seems to imagine. When Nashville fenced off a downtown park for renovation not too long ago, the homeless people who frequented it disappeared. “Where did they go?” Bailey asked.

Atnip laughed on the concept of people shipped in from Nashville. She was living in close by Monterey when she misplaced her home and needed to ship her children to dwell along with her dad and mom. She has acquired some government help, however not sufficient to get her again on her ft, she stated. At one point she bought a housing voucher but couldn’t find a landlord who would accept it. She and her new husband saved enough to finance a used car and were working as supply 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 positive the place they'll pitch it.

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

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

“Most of them have been here a couple of years, and never once 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 resolve homelessness. In truth, it would make the issue worse,” stated Bobby Watts, CEO of the National Healthcare for the Homeless Council. “Having a felony on your file makes it arduous to qualify for some kinds of housing, tougher to get a job, more durable to qualify for advantages.”

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

“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 once homeless with her kids. Many people are just one paycheck or one tragedy away from being on the streets, she mentioned. Even in her neighborhood of 5,000, inexpensive housing may be very hard to return by.

“When you have a felony in your file — 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 here rounding up homeless people,” he stated of Cookeville law enforcement. However he doesn’t know what might occur in other elements of the state.

He hopes the new legislation will spur some of its opponents to work with him on long-term options for Cookeville’s homeless. If they all worked collectively it might mean “loads of assets and possible funding sources to help these in need,” he said.

However different advocates don’t suppose threatening folks with a felony is a good method to assist them.

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