With public camping a felony, Tennessee homeless seek refuge

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Miranda Atnip misplaced her dwelling in the course of the coronavirus pandemic after her boyfriend moved out and she fell behind on bills. Dwelling in a automobile, the 34-year-old worries each day about getting cash for meals, finding somewhere to bathe, and saving up enough cash for an residence the place her three kids can dwell along with her once more.

Now she has a brand new worry: Tennessee is about to turn out to be the primary U.S. state to make it a felony to camp on native public property resembling parks.

“Honestly, it’s going to be laborious,” Atnip mentioned of the regulation, 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 enlargement, Sen. Paul Bailey famous that no one has been convicted under that law and mentioned he doesn’t count on this one to be enforced a lot, both. Neither does Luke Eldridge, a man who has worked with homeless people in the city of Cookeville and supports Bailey’s plan — partly as a result of he hopes it's going to spur individuals who care in regards to the homeless to work with him on long-term solutions.

The law requires that violators obtain no less than 24 hours notice before 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 ... if they wish to concern a felony,” Bailey said. “But it’s solely going to come to that if folks actually don’t want to transfer.”

After several years of regular decline, homelessness in america began growing in 2017. A survey in January 2020 found for the primary time that the variety of unsheltered homeless individuals exceeded these in shelters. The issue was exacerbated by COVID-19, with shelters limiting capability.

Public stress to do something concerning the increasing number of highly seen homeless encampments has pushed even many historically liberal cities to clear them. Although camping has typically been regulated by local vagrancy legal guidelines, Texas passed a statewide ban final yr. Municipalities that fail to enforce the ban danger dropping state funding. A number of other states have introduced similar payments, but Tennessee is the one one to make tenting a felony.

Bailey’s district consists of Cookeville, a city of about 35,000 people between Nashville and Knoxville, the place the local newspaper has chronicled growing concern with the growing number of homeless individuals. 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 signs encouraging residents to provide to charities as a substitute of panhandlers. And the City Council twice thought of panhandling bans.

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

Atnip laughed at the concept of people shipped in from Nashville. She was living in close by Monterey when she misplaced her dwelling and needed to send her youngsters to stay together with her mother and father. She has obtained some authorities help, but not enough to get her back on her ft, she said. At one level she got a housing voucher but couldn’t find a landlord who would settle for it. She and her new husband saved sufficient to finance a used car and had been working as delivery drivers until it broke down. Now she’s afraid they are going to lose the automotive 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 mistaken, it sort of snowballs,” Atnip said. “We were earning profits with DoorDash. Our bills have been paid. We have been saving. Then the car goes kaput and the whole lot goes bad.”

Eldridge, who has labored with Cookeville’s homeless for a decade, is an surprising advocate of the camping ban. He stated he desires to continue serving to the homeless, however some individuals aren’t motivated to enhance their state of affairs. Some are hooked on medication, he mentioned, and some are hiding from law enforcement. Eldridge estimates there are about 60 people dwelling outdoors more or less completely in Cookeville, and he is aware of them all.

“Most of them have been here just a few years, and never as soon as have they requested for housing assist,” he stated.

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

“The big downside with this regulation is that it does nothing to solve homelessness. In fact, it is going to make the problem worse,” mentioned Bobby Watts, CEO of the Nationwide Healthcare for the Homeless Council. “Having a felony in your record makes it hard to qualify for some sorts 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 folks will move off the streets given the fitting alternatives, Watts mentioned. Homelessness among U.S. navy veterans, for instance, has been cut nearly in half over the past decade by a combination of housing subsidies and social services.

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

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

“In case you have a felony on your report — holy smokes!” she mentioned.

Eldridge, like Sen. Bailey, mentioned he doesn’t expect 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 people,” he said of Cookeville law enforcement. But he doesn’t know what might happen in other components of the state.

He hopes the brand new legislation will spur a few of its opponents to work with him on long-term options for Cookeville’s homeless. If all of them worked collectively it would imply “a lot of sources and possible funding sources to assist these in want,” he stated.

However different advocates don’t think threatening individuals with a felony is an effective way to help them.

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