With public camping a felony, Tennessee homeless seek refuge

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Miranda Atnip misplaced her residence during the coronavirus pandemic after her boyfriend moved out and he or she fell behind on payments. Residing in a car, the 34-year-old worries daily about getting cash for meals, discovering somewhere to bathe, and saving up sufficient money for an condo the place her three children can reside along with her again.

Now she has a new fear: Tennessee is about to change into the first U.S. state to make it a felony to camp on local public property comparable to parks.

“Actually, it’s going to be hard,” Atnip said of the law, which takes effect 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 nobody has been convicted below that legislation and mentioned he doesn’t anticipate this one to be enforced a lot, either. Neither does Luke Eldridge, a person who has labored with homeless individuals within the metropolis of Cookeville and helps Bailey’s plan — partially because he hopes it'll spur people who care concerning the homeless to work with him on long-term solutions.

The regulation requires that violators receive at least 24 hours discover before 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 as much as prosecutors ... if they wish to issue a felony,” Bailey mentioned. “But it surely’s solely going to come back to that if people actually don’t wish to transfer.”

After several years of steady decline, homelessness in the USA started growing 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 pressure to do one thing concerning the increasing number of highly seen homeless encampments has pushed even many historically liberal cities to clear them. Although tenting has usually been regulated by native vagrancy laws, Texas passed a statewide ban last yr. Municipalities that fail to enforce the ban danger losing state funding. A number of other states have introduced similar bills, however Tennessee is the only one to make camping a felony.

Bailey’s district includes Cookeville, a city of about 35,000 folks between Nashville and Knoxville, the place the local newspaper has chronicled growing concern with the rising number of homeless individuals. The Herald-Citizen reported last 12 months that complaints about panhandlers nearly doubled between 2019 and 2020, from 157 to 300. In 2021, the city put in indicators encouraging residents to give to charities as a substitute of panhandlers. And the City Council twice thought of panhandling bans.

The Republican lawmaker acknowledges that complaints from Cookeville obtained his consideration. City council members have told him that Nashville ships its homeless right here, Bailey said. 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 requested.

Atnip laughed at the idea of individuals shipped in from Nashville. She was living in close by Monterey when she lost her home and needed to send her youngsters to reside with her dad and mom. She has obtained some government assist, however not sufficient to get her back on her feet, she said. At one point she acquired a housing voucher but couldn’t find a landlord who would accept it. She and her new husband saved sufficient to finance a used automobile 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 sure where they'll pitch it.

“It looks as if once one factor goes mistaken, it type of snowballs,” Atnip stated. “We had been earning profits with DoorDash. Our payments were paid. We were saving. Then the automobile goes kaput and all the things goes unhealthy.”

Eldridge, who has labored with Cookeville’s homeless for a decade, is an unexpected advocate of the camping ban. He mentioned he needs to proceed serving to the homeless, but some individuals 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 roughly completely in Cookeville, and he knows all of them.

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

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

“The massive downside with this law is that it does nothing to unravel homelessness. In fact, it can make the problem worse,” mentioned Bobby Watts, CEO of the National Healthcare for the Homeless Council. “Having a felony on your file makes it laborious to qualify for some types of housing, more durable to get a job, tougher to qualify for advantages.”

Not everyone needs to be in a crowded shelter with a curfew, but people will transfer off the streets given the appropriate opportunities, Watts mentioned. Homelessness amongst U.S. army veterans, for example, has been lower almost in half over the past decade via a mixture of housing subsidies and social services.

“It’s not magic,” he stated. “What works for that population, works for each population.”

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

“If you have a felony in your document — 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 law enforcement. However he doesn’t know what would possibly occur 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 solutions for Cookeville’s homeless. If they all worked together it will mean “a number of resources and potential funding sources to help those in need,” he said.

However different advocates don’t assume threatening folks with a felony is an efficient approach to help them.

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