With public tenting a felony, Tennessee homeless seek refuge

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Miranda Atnip misplaced her dwelling through the coronavirus pandemic after her boyfriend moved out and she or he fell behind on bills. Living in a automotive, the 34-year-old worries day-after-day about getting cash for food, finding somewhere to shower, and saving up sufficient money for an condo where her three kids can stay with her again.

Now she has a new worry: Tennessee is about to turn into 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 hard,” Atnip mentioned of the regulation, 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 no one has been convicted under that law and said he doesn’t count on this one to be enforced a lot, both. Neither does Luke Eldridge, a man who has worked with homeless folks within the metropolis of Cookeville and helps Bailey’s plan — partly because he hopes it will spur people 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 earlier than an arrest. The felony charge is punishable by up to six years in prison 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 said. “But it surely’s only going to come back to that if individuals really don’t need to move.”

After a number of years of regular decline, homelessness in the United States started rising in 2017. A survey in January 2020 found for the primary time that the number of unsheltered homeless individuals exceeded those in shelters. The problem was exacerbated by COVID-19, with shelters limiting capacity.

Public pressure to do one thing about the increasing variety of highly seen homeless encampments has pushed even many traditionally liberal cities to clear them. Although camping has usually been regulated by native vagrancy laws, Texas handed a statewide ban final year. Municipalities that fail to enforce the ban risk dropping state funding. Several different states have introduced comparable payments, but Tennessee is the one one to make camping a felony.

Bailey’s district contains Cookeville, a metropolis of about 35,000 people between Nashville and Knoxville, where the native newspaper has chronicled rising concern with the increasing variety of homeless individuals. The Herald-Citizen reported last 12 months that complaints about panhandlers practically doubled between 2019 and 2020, from 157 to 300. In 2021, the city installed signs encouraging residents to provide to charities as a substitute of panhandlers. And the City Council twice considered panhandling bans.

The Republican lawmaker acknowledges that complaints from Cookeville got his consideration. Metropolis council members have advised him that Nashville ships its homeless here, Bailey mentioned. 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 idea of individuals shipped in from Nashville. She was residing in nearby Monterey when she lost her dwelling and had to ship her kids to live with her dad and mom. She has acquired some government assist, however not enough to get her again on her feet, she mentioned. At one level she received a housing voucher but couldn’t discover a landlord who would settle for 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 will lose the car and have to move to a tent, though she isn’t sure where they are going to pitch it.

“It looks as if as soon as one factor goes wrong, it sort of snowballs,” Atnip said. “We were being profitable 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 surprising advocate of the tenting ban. He mentioned he desires to proceed helping the homeless, however some people aren’t motivated to improve their state of affairs. Some are addicted to medication, he said, and some are hiding from law enforcement. Eldridge estimates there are about 60 people residing exterior roughly permanently in Cookeville, and he is aware of them all.

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

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

“The massive drawback with this law is that it does nothing to unravel homelessness. In reality, it should make the problem worse,” stated Bobby Watts, CEO of the National Healthcare for the Homeless Council. “Having a felony on your record makes it onerous to qualify for some kinds 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 alternatives, Watts said. Homelessness amongst U.S. army veterans, for example, has been lower practically in half over the previous decade by way of a combination of housing subsidies and social services.

“It’s not magic,” he stated. “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 group of 5,000, affordable housing is very exhausting to come by.

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

Eldridge, like Sen. Bailey, said he doesn’t count on 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 mentioned of Cookeville regulation enforcement. But he doesn’t know what might occur in other components of the state.

He hopes the new legislation will spur a few of its opponents to work with him on long-term solutions for Cookeville’s homeless. If they all worked together it will imply “numerous sources and doable funding sources to assist these in want,” he stated.

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

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