With public tenting a felony, Tennessee homeless seek refuge

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Miranda Atnip lost her dwelling in the course of the coronavirus pandemic after her boyfriend moved out and he or she fell behind on bills. Dwelling in a automobile, the 34-year-old worries day by day about getting cash for meals, discovering somewhere to bathe, and saving up enough money for an condo where her three kids can live with her again.

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

“Actually, it’s going to be onerous,” Atnip said of the legislation, 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 famous that no one has been convicted underneath that legislation and mentioned he doesn’t anticipate this one to be enforced much, either. Neither does Luke Eldridge, a person who has labored with homeless people in the city of Cookeville and supports Bailey’s plan — partly as a result of he hopes it will spur individuals who care about the homeless to work with him on long-term solutions.

The law requires that violators obtain at the least 24 hours notice earlier than an arrest. The felony cost is punishable by as much as six years in jail and the loss of voting rights.

“It’s going to be as much as prosecutors ... if they need to challenge a felony,” Bailey said. “Nevertheless it’s solely going to come back to that if folks really don’t wish to transfer.”

After several years of steady decline, homelessness in the United States began growing in 2017. A survey in January 2020 discovered 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 capacity.

Public pressure to do one thing about the growing variety of highly visible homeless encampments has pushed even many traditionally liberal cities to clear them. Although tenting has usually been regulated by native vagrancy legal guidelines, Texas passed a statewide ban last 12 months. Municipalities that fail to implement the ban risk shedding state funding. A number of other states have launched similar bills, however Tennessee is the one one to make camping a felony.

Bailey’s district includes Cookeville, a metropolis of about 35,000 individuals between Nashville and Knoxville, the place the local newspaper has chronicled growing concern with the increasing variety of homeless folks. The Herald-Citizen reported last year that complaints about panhandlers nearly doubled between 2019 and 2020, from 157 to 300. In 2021, town installed signs encouraging residents to offer to charities instead of panhandlers. And the City Council twice considered panhandling bans.

The Republican lawmaker acknowledges that complaints from Cookeville received his attention. City council members have instructed him that Nashville ships its homeless right here, Bailey said. 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. “The place did they go?” Bailey asked.

Atnip laughed on the thought of people shipped in from Nashville. She was living in close by Monterey when she misplaced her dwelling and had to ship her youngsters to live with her mother and father. She has received some authorities help, but not sufficient to get her back on her ft, she stated. At one level she got a housing voucher but couldn’t discover a landlord who would accept it. She and her new husband saved enough to finance a used automobile and were 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, although she isn’t sure where they may pitch it.

“It seems like as soon as one thing goes wrong, it type of snowballs,” Atnip mentioned. “We have been making money with DoorDash. Our bills were paid. We were saving. Then the automotive goes kaput and all the things goes dangerous.”

Eldridge, who has worked with Cookeville’s homeless for a decade, is an surprising advocate of the tenting ban. He mentioned he desires to continue helping the homeless, however some individuals aren’t motivated to improve their scenario. Some are hooked on medicine, he stated, and a few are hiding from regulation enforcement. Eldridge estimates there are about 60 individuals living outdoors more or less completely in Cookeville, and he knows them all.

“Most of them have been here a couple of 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 large downside with this regulation is that it does nothing to resolve homelessness. In fact, it will make the issue worse,” said Bobby Watts, CEO of the Nationwide Healthcare for the Homeless Council. “Having a felony in your document makes it hard to qualify for some forms of housing, tougher to get a job, harder to qualify for benefits.”

Not everyone desires to be in a crowded shelter with a curfew, but individuals will move off the streets given the appropriate alternatives, Watts stated. Homelessness amongst U.S. army veterans, for example, has been reduce practically in half over the past decade by means of a combination of housing subsidies and social services.

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

Tina Lomax, who runs Seeds of Hope of Tennessee in close by Sparta, was once homeless with her youngsters. Many people are just one paycheck or one tragedy away from being on the streets, she mentioned. Even in her community of 5,000, inexpensive housing may be very onerous to come by.

“If in case you have a felony on your record — 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 individuals,” he said of Cookeville legislation enforcement. But he doesn’t know what would possibly happen in other components of the state.

He hopes the brand new regulation will spur a few of its opponents to work with him on long-term options for Cookeville’s homeless. If they all labored together it might mean “a number of sources and potential funding sources to help these in want,” he mentioned.

But other advocates don’t assume threatening individuals with a felony is a good means to assist them.

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