With public tenting a felony, Tennessee homeless seek refuge

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

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

“Truthfully, it’s going to be hard,” Atnip mentioned 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 growth, Sen. Paul Bailey noted that nobody has been convicted below that regulation and said he doesn’t expect this one to be enforced a lot, either. Neither does Luke Eldridge, a man who has worked with homeless people within the metropolis of Cookeville and helps Bailey’s plan — partially because he hopes it's going to spur individuals who care about the homeless to work with him on long-term solutions.

The regulation requires that violators receive at the very least 24 hours discover earlier than an arrest. The felony cost is punishable by as much as six years in prison and the loss of voting rights.

“It’s going to be up to prosecutors ... in the event that they need to subject a felony,” Bailey mentioned. “But it surely’s only going to return to that if people actually don’t need to transfer.”

After a number of years of steady decline, homelessness in the United States began increasing in 2017. A survey in January 2020 discovered for the primary time that the variety of unsheltered homeless folks exceeded these in shelters. The issue was exacerbated by COVID-19, with shelters limiting capability.

Public pressure to do something concerning the growing variety of highly visible homeless encampments has pushed even many traditionally liberal cities to clear them. Though tenting has usually been regulated by local vagrancy laws, Texas passed a statewide ban last yr. Municipalities that fail to enforce the ban danger dropping state funding. A number of other states have introduced comparable bills, however Tennessee is the one one to make tenting a felony.

Bailey’s district includes Cookeville, a city of about 35,000 individuals between Nashville and Knoxville, where the local newspaper has chronicled rising concern with the rising variety of homeless people. The Herald-Citizen reported last year that complaints about panhandlers almost doubled between 2019 and 2020, from 157 to 300. In 2021, town put in indicators encouraging residents to give to charities as an alternative of panhandlers. And the Metropolis Council twice considered panhandling bans.

The Republican lawmaker acknowledges that complaints from Cookeville obtained his attention. City council members have informed him that Nashville ships its homeless here, Bailey mentioned. It’s a rumor many in Cookeville have heard and Bailey seems to consider. When Nashville fenced off a downtown park for renovation just lately, the homeless individuals who frequented it disappeared. “Where did they go?” Bailey requested.

Atnip laughed on the idea of people shipped in from Nashville. She was living in nearby Monterey when she lost her dwelling and had to send her kids to stay together with her dad and mom. She has obtained some government assist, but not enough to get her again on her ft, she said. At one point she obtained a housing voucher however couldn’t discover a landlord who would settle for it. She and her new husband saved enough to finance a used car and have been working as delivery drivers till it broke down. Now she’s afraid they may lose the car and have to move to a tent, though she isn’t certain where they are going to pitch it.

“It looks like as soon as one factor goes incorrect, it sort of snowballs,” Atnip said. “We had been making money with DoorDash. Our payments have been paid. We had been saving. Then the automobile goes kaput and every little thing goes unhealthy.”

Eldridge, who has labored with Cookeville’s homeless for a decade, is an unexpected advocate of the tenting ban. He mentioned he wants to continue serving to the homeless, but some folks aren’t motivated to enhance their state of affairs. Some are hooked on medication, he said, and some are hiding from legislation enforcement. Eldridge estimates there are about 60 individuals dwelling exterior roughly 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 assist,” he said.

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

“The large downside with this legislation is that it does nothing to solve homelessness. In actual fact, it can make the issue worse,” said 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, more durable to get a job, more durable to qualify for benefits.”

Not everyone desires to be in a crowded shelter with a curfew, however individuals will move off the streets given the suitable opportunities, Watts stated. Homelessness amongst U.S. navy veterans, for instance, has been minimize practically in half over the past decade by means of a combination of housing subsidies and social companies.

“It’s not magic,” he mentioned. “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 only one paycheck or one tragedy away from being on the streets, she said. Even in her group of 5,000, affordable housing may be very laborious to return by.

“If you have a felony in your record — holy smokes!” she stated.

Eldridge, like Sen. Bailey, mentioned 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 stated of Cookeville law enforcement. However he doesn’t know what may happen in different components of the state.

He hopes the brand new legislation will spur some of its opponents to work with him on long-term solutions for Cookeville’s homeless. If all of them labored together it could mean “quite a lot of assets and potential funding sources to help those in need,” he mentioned.

However different advocates don’t suppose threatening folks with a felony is an effective means to assist them.

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