With public camping a felony, Tennessee homeless seek refuge

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Miranda Atnip misplaced her house throughout the coronavirus pandemic after her boyfriend moved out and she or he fell behind on payments. Residing in a automotive, the 34-year-old worries day by day about getting cash for meals, finding somewhere to shower, and saving up enough money for an condominium the place her three youngsters can live together with her once more.

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

“Actually, it’s going to be arduous,” Atnip mentioned of the law, 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 growth, Sen. Paul Bailey famous that no one has been convicted under that legislation and said he doesn’t count on this one to be enforced a lot, either. Neither does Luke Eldridge, a person who has labored with homeless people within the metropolis of Cookeville and supports Bailey’s plan — in part because he hopes it is going to spur people who care concerning 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 cost is punishable by up to six years in prison and the lack of voting rights.

“It’s going to be as much as prosecutors ... if they wish to situation a felony,” Bailey said. “Nevertheless it’s solely going to come to that if individuals really don’t wish to transfer.”

After several years of regular decline, homelessness in the US began increasing in 2017. A survey in January 2020 discovered for the first time that the number of unsheltered homeless people exceeded those in shelters. The issue was exacerbated by COVID-19, with shelters limiting capacity.

Public strain to do one thing in regards to the growing number of extremely seen homeless encampments has pushed even many historically liberal cities to clear them. Although camping has usually been regulated by local vagrancy laws, Texas handed a statewide ban last year. Municipalities that fail to implement the ban risk losing state funding. A number of different states have launched related payments, however Tennessee is the only one to make tenting a felony.

Bailey’s district consists of Cookeville, a metropolis of about 35,000 people between Nashville and Knoxville, where the local newspaper has chronicled growing concern with the rising number of homeless folks. The Herald-Citizen reported final yr that complaints about panhandlers nearly doubled between 2019 and 2020, from 157 to 300. In 2021, the city put in indicators 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 obtained his attention. Metropolis council members have instructed him that Nashville ships its homeless right here, Bailey stated. It’s a rumor many in Cookeville have heard and Bailey appears to imagine. When Nashville fenced off a downtown park for renovation recently, the homeless individuals who frequented it disappeared. “The place did they go?” Bailey requested.

Atnip laughed at the concept of people shipped in from Nashville. She was residing in nearby Monterey when she lost her house and had to send her children to stay with her dad and mom. She has obtained some authorities help, however not enough to get her back on her ft, she stated. At one level she received 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 had been working as supply drivers till it broke down. Now she’s afraid they are going to lose the automobile and have to move to a tent, though she isn’t certain where they will pitch it.

“It looks like once one factor goes fallacious, it sort of snowballs,” Atnip mentioned. “We had been earning money with DoorDash. Our payments have been paid. We had been saving. Then the automobile goes kaput and all the pieces goes bad.”

Eldridge, who has worked with Cookeville’s homeless for a decade, is an sudden advocate of the tenting ban. He stated he desires to proceed helping the homeless, but some folks aren’t motivated to improve their state of affairs. Some are addicted to medicine, he said, and some are hiding from legislation enforcement. Eldridge estimates there are about 60 folks dwelling exterior more or less permanently in Cookeville, and he is aware of them all.

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

Eldridge knows his place is unpopular with different advocates.

“The massive drawback with this law is that it does nothing to solve homelessness. In actual fact, it'll make the issue worse,” stated Bobby Watts, CEO of the National Healthcare for the Homeless Council. “Having a felony on your record makes it laborious to qualify for some types of housing, harder to get a job, more durable to qualify for advantages.”

Not everyone desires to be in a crowded shelter with a curfew, however individuals will move off the streets given the correct alternatives, Watts mentioned. Homelessness among U.S. army veterans, for example, has been cut nearly in half over the previous decade through a mix of housing subsidies and social companies.

“It’s not magic,” he said. “What works for that inhabitants, 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 people are just one paycheck or one tragedy away from being on the streets, she stated. Even in her community of 5,000, inexpensive housing could be very arduous to come back by.

“If you have a felony on your file — holy smokes!” she stated.

Eldridge, like Sen. Bailey, stated he doesn’t count on many people to be prosecuted for sleeping on public property. “I can promise, they’re not going to be out here rounding up homeless individuals,” he stated of Cookeville legislation enforcement. However he doesn’t know what might happen in different parts of the state.

He hopes the brand new regulation will spur some of its opponents to work with him on long-term options for Cookeville’s homeless. If all of them labored collectively it could imply “lots of resources and possible funding sources to help those in want,” he mentioned.

But different advocates don’t think threatening folks with a felony is a good approach to assist them.

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