With public tenting a felony, Tennessee homeless seek refuge

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Miranda Atnip lost her home throughout the coronavirus pandemic after her boyfriend moved out and she fell behind on bills. Living in a automotive, the 34-year-old worries every single day about getting cash for food, discovering someplace to shower, and saving up enough cash for an condominium where her three kids can stay with her again.

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

“Honestly, it’s going to be exhausting,” Atnip stated of the regulation, which takes effect 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 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 helps Bailey’s plan — in part because he hopes it should spur individuals who care concerning the homeless to work with him on long-term options.

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

“It’s going to be up to prosecutors ... if they need to problem a felony,” Bailey mentioned. “But it’s solely going to come to that if folks actually don’t wish to move.”

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

Public pressure to do something about the rising number of extremely seen homeless encampments has pushed even many traditionally liberal cities to clear them. Though tenting has usually been regulated by native vagrancy laws, Texas handed a statewide ban final yr. Municipalities that fail to enforce the ban risk losing state funding. Several other states have launched comparable bills, however Tennessee is the only one to make camping a felony.

Bailey’s district contains Cookeville, a metropolis of about 35,000 folks between Nashville and Knoxville, where the local newspaper has chronicled rising concern with the growing number of homeless individuals. The Herald-Citizen reported last year that complaints about panhandlers nearly doubled between 2019 and 2020, from 157 to 300. In 2021, the city installed signs encouraging residents to give to charities as an alternative of panhandlers. And the City Council twice thought of panhandling bans.

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

Atnip laughed on the concept of individuals shipped in from Nashville. She was residing in close by Monterey when she misplaced her residence and needed to send her children to stay along with her parents. She has received some government assist, however not enough to get her again on her feet, she stated. At one point she got a housing voucher however couldn’t discover a landlord who would accept it. She and her new husband saved enough to finance a used car and were working as delivery drivers until it broke down. Now she’s afraid they may lose the automotive and have to move to a tent, though she isn’t positive the place they will pitch it.

“It seems like as soon as one factor goes flawed, it form of snowballs,” Atnip stated. “We have been creating wealth with DoorDash. Our bills were paid. We had been saving. Then the automobile goes kaput and the whole lot goes unhealthy.”

Eldridge, who has labored with Cookeville’s homeless for a decade, is an surprising advocate of the tenting ban. He stated he wants to continue serving to the homeless, however some people aren’t motivated to enhance their state of affairs. Some are addicted to drugs, he stated, and a few are hiding from law enforcement. Eldridge estimates there are about 60 people dwelling exterior roughly completely in Cookeville, and he knows all of them.

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

Eldridge knows his place is unpopular with different advocates.

“The massive downside with this regulation is that it does nothing to solve homelessness. The truth is, it is going to make the issue worse,” stated Bobby Watts, CEO of the Nationwide Healthcare for the Homeless Council. “Having a felony in your file makes it arduous to qualify for some types of housing, more durable to get a job, harder to qualify for benefits.”

Not everyone wants to be in a crowded shelter with a curfew, but folks will move off the streets given the correct opportunities, Watts mentioned. Homelessness among U.S. navy veterans, for instance, has been cut nearly in half over the previous decade through a combination of housing subsidies and social providers.

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

Tina Lomax, who runs Seeds of Hope of Tennessee in close by Sparta, was once homeless with her youngsters. Many individuals are just one paycheck or one tragedy away from being on the streets, she said. Even in her community of 5,000, reasonably priced housing could be very laborious to return by.

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

Eldridge, like Sen. Bailey, mentioned he doesn’t expect many individuals 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. However he doesn’t know what might occur in different components of the state.

He hopes the new law 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 could mean “quite a lot of resources and attainable funding sources to help those in want,” he said.

However other advocates don’t assume threatening individuals with a felony is a good way to help them.

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