With public camping a felony, Tennessee homeless seek refuge

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Miranda Atnip lost her home through the coronavirus pandemic after her boyfriend moved out and she or he fell behind on bills. Residing in a car, the 34-year-old worries every single day about getting money for food, discovering somewhere to shower, and saving up enough money for an apartment where her three children can live together with her once more.

Now she has a brand new worry: Tennessee is about to become the first U.S. state to make it a felony to camp on local public property reminiscent of parks.

“Truthfully, it’s going to be onerous,” 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 nobody has been convicted beneath that law and said he doesn’t count on this one to be enforced a lot, both. Neither does Luke Eldridge, a person who has labored with homeless people within the city of Cookeville and helps Bailey’s plan — partially as a result of he hopes it would spur individuals who care in regards to the homeless to work with him on long-term options.

The law requires that violators obtain at the very least 24 hours discover before an arrest. The felony cost is punishable by as much as six years in prison and the lack of voting rights.

“It’s going to be as much as prosecutors ... if they need to issue a felony,” Bailey stated. “Nevertheless it’s solely going to return to that if folks really don’t wish to transfer.”

After a number of years of regular decline, homelessness in america 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 problem was exacerbated by COVID-19, with shelters limiting capacity.

Public strain to do something concerning the rising number of extremely seen homeless encampments has pushed even many historically liberal cities to clear them. Although tenting has typically been regulated by native vagrancy legal guidelines, Texas handed a statewide ban last year. Municipalities that fail to enforce the ban risk shedding state funding. Several different states have introduced related payments, however Tennessee is the one one to make camping a felony.

Bailey’s district contains Cookeville, a city of about 35,000 people between Nashville and Knoxville, the place the native newspaper has chronicled rising concern with the growing number of homeless individuals. The Herald-Citizen reported final year that complaints about panhandlers almost doubled between 2019 and 2020, from 157 to 300. In 2021, the city put in signs encouraging residents to give to charities as an alternative of panhandlers. And the City Council twice considered panhandling bans.

The Republican lawmaker acknowledges that complaints from Cookeville bought his consideration. Metropolis council members have told him that Nashville ships its homeless here, Bailey said. It’s a rumor many in Cookeville have heard and Bailey appears to imagine. When Nashville fenced off a downtown park for renovation just lately, the homeless people who frequented it disappeared. “Where did they go?” Bailey asked.

Atnip laughed at the idea of people shipped in from Nashville. She was living in close by Monterey when she misplaced her residence and needed to send her kids to stay together with her mother and father. She has obtained some authorities assist, but not sufficient to get her back on her ft, she mentioned. At one level she got a housing voucher but couldn’t find a landlord who would accept it. She and her new husband saved enough to finance a used automobile and were working as delivery drivers until it broke down. Now she’s afraid they are going to lose the automobile and have to maneuver to a tent, though she isn’t certain where they'll pitch it.

“It looks like once one thing goes flawed, it kind of snowballs,” Atnip mentioned. “We were getting cash with DoorDash. Our bills have been paid. We were saving. Then the automobile goes kaput and all the things goes bad.”

Eldridge, who has labored with Cookeville’s homeless for a decade, is an surprising advocate of the tenting ban. He stated he desires to continue helping the homeless, but some folks aren’t motivated to enhance their state of affairs. Some are addicted to drugs, he said, and some are hiding from legislation enforcement. Eldridge estimates there are about 60 folks dwelling outside kind of completely in Cookeville, and he is aware of all of them.

“Most of them have been here a few years, and not as soon as have they requested for housing help,” he mentioned.

Eldridge knows his place is unpopular with different advocates.

“The large problem with this regulation is that it does nothing to unravel homelessness. In actual fact, it will make the problem worse,” mentioned Bobby Watts, CEO of the Nationwide Healthcare for the Homeless Council. “Having a felony on your report makes it arduous to qualify for some kinds of housing, tougher to get a job, tougher to qualify for benefits.”

Not everybody desires to be in a crowded shelter with a curfew, however folks will transfer off the streets given the right alternatives, Watts mentioned. Homelessness among U.S. navy veterans, for instance, has been minimize almost in half over the past decade by means of a mix of housing subsidies and social services.

“It’s not magic,” he stated. “What works for that inhabitants, works for each 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 mentioned. Even in her neighborhood of 5,000, affordable housing may be very hard to return by.

“You probably have a felony on your file — holy smokes!” she mentioned.

Eldridge, like Sen. Bailey, stated 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 folks,” he stated of Cookeville legislation enforcement. However he doesn’t know what would possibly happen in other components of the state.

He hopes the brand new legislation will spur some of its opponents to work with him on long-term options for Cookeville’s homeless. If all of them worked together it might imply “a whole lot of sources and attainable funding sources to help these in need,” he said.

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

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