With public tenting a felony, Tennessee homeless search refuge

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Miranda Atnip lost her dwelling through the coronavirus pandemic after her boyfriend moved out and she fell behind on payments. Living in a car, the 34-year-old worries each day about getting cash for meals, discovering someplace to bathe, and saving up enough money for an condominium the place her three children can dwell together with her once more.

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

“Honestly, it’s going to be laborious,” Atnip stated of the legislation, 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 noted that nobody has been convicted under that legislation and said he doesn’t anticipate this one to be enforced much, both. Neither does Luke Eldridge, a man who has labored with homeless folks within the metropolis of Cookeville and supports Bailey’s plan — partially as a result of he hopes it will spur individuals who care concerning the homeless to work with him on long-term options.

The regulation requires that violators receive at least 24 hours notice before an arrest. The felony charge is punishable by up to six years in jail and the loss of voting rights.

“It’s going to be up to prosecutors ... in the event that they want to concern a felony,” Bailey stated. “Nevertheless it’s only going to come back to that if people actually don’t need to transfer.”

After several years of regular decline, homelessness in the US started growing in 2017. A survey in January 2020 discovered for the primary time that the number of unsheltered homeless folks exceeded these in shelters. The issue was exacerbated by COVID-19, with shelters limiting capability.

Public stress to do something about the increasing variety of highly visible homeless encampments has pushed even many traditionally liberal cities to clear them. Though camping has typically been regulated by native vagrancy legal guidelines, Texas handed a statewide ban final 12 months. Municipalities that fail to enforce the ban risk shedding state funding. Several other states have introduced related payments, but Tennessee is the one one to make camping a felony.

Bailey’s district consists of Cookeville, a city of about 35,000 individuals between Nashville and Knoxville, the place the local newspaper has chronicled rising concern with the growing number 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 installed signs encouraging residents to offer to charities as an alternative of panhandlers. And the Metropolis Council twice thought-about panhandling bans.

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

Atnip laughed on the idea of people shipped in from Nashville. She was residing in close by Monterey when she misplaced her dwelling and had to send her kids to reside together with her parents. She has received some government assist, however not sufficient to get her again on her ft, she mentioned. At one point she got a housing voucher but couldn’t discover a landlord who would accept it. She and her new husband saved sufficient to finance a used automobile and have been working as supply drivers until it broke down. Now she’s afraid they are going to lose the car and have to move to a tent, though she isn’t certain where they will pitch it.

“It looks as if once one thing goes flawed, it sort of snowballs,” Atnip stated. “We have been creating wealth with DoorDash. Our payments had been paid. We were saving. Then the car goes kaput and every part goes bad.”

Eldridge, who has labored with Cookeville’s homeless for a decade, is an sudden advocate of the camping ban. He stated he wants to continue serving to the homeless, but some folks aren’t motivated to improve their state of affairs. Some are addicted to drugs, he stated, and a few are hiding from regulation enforcement. Eldridge estimates there are about 60 folks residing outside more or less permanently in Cookeville, and he is aware of all of them.

“Most of them have been right here a couple of years, and never once have they requested for housing help,” he mentioned.

Eldridge is aware of his position is unpopular with different advocates.

“The large drawback with this legislation is that it does nothing to resolve homelessness. Actually, it's going to make the problem worse,” stated Bobby Watts, CEO of the National Healthcare for the Homeless Council. “Having a felony on your file makes it laborious to qualify for some forms of housing, tougher to get a job, more durable to qualify for benefits.”

Not everybody needs to be in a crowded shelter with a curfew, however people will move off the streets given the proper opportunities, Watts said. Homelessness amongst U.S. army veterans, for example, has been minimize almost in half over the previous decade by way of a combination of housing subsidies and social services.

“It’s not magic,” he said. “What works for that inhabitants, works for each inhabitants.”

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

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

Eldridge, like Sen. Bailey, said he doesn’t anticipate many people to be prosecuted for sleeping on public property. “I can promise, they’re not going to be out right here rounding up homeless individuals,” he stated of Cookeville law enforcement. However he doesn’t know what may occur in different elements of the state.

He hopes the new law will spur a few of its opponents to work with him on long-term options for Cookeville’s homeless. If they all worked collectively it will mean “loads of assets and doable funding sources to assist these in need,” he mentioned.

But other advocates don’t think threatening folks with a felony is an efficient approach to help them.

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