With public tenting a felony, Tennessee homeless seek refuge

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Miranda Atnip lost her residence throughout the coronavirus pandemic after her boyfriend moved out and he or she fell behind on bills. Living in a automotive, the 34-year-old worries every single day about getting cash for meals, finding somewhere to shower, and saving up sufficient cash for an condo the place her three children can reside along with her once more.

Now she has a 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 reminiscent of parks.

“Truthfully, it’s going to be hard,” Atnip mentioned of the legislation, 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 law and stated he doesn’t count on this one to be enforced much, either. Neither does Luke Eldridge, a person who has worked with homeless individuals in the metropolis of Cookeville and helps Bailey’s plan — partly as a result of he hopes it's going to spur individuals who care concerning the homeless to work with him on long-term solutions.

The legislation requires that violators receive a minimum of 24 hours discover before 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 ... in the event that they need to challenge a felony,” Bailey stated. “Nevertheless it’s only going to come to that if folks actually don’t want to transfer.”

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

Public pressure to do one thing about the growing number of extremely visible homeless encampments has pushed even many traditionally liberal cities to clear them. Although tenting has generally been regulated by local vagrancy laws, Texas handed a statewide ban last yr. Municipalities that fail to enforce the ban threat shedding state funding. A number of other states have introduced similar payments, but Tennessee is the only one to make camping a felony.

Bailey’s district includes Cookeville, a metropolis of about 35,000 people between Nashville and Knoxville, where the local newspaper has chronicled rising concern with the growing number of homeless people. The Herald-Citizen reported final yr that complaints about panhandlers nearly doubled between 2019 and 2020, from 157 to 300. In 2021, the town installed indicators encouraging residents to present to charities instead 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 advised him that Nashville ships its homeless right here, Bailey said. It’s a rumor many in Cookeville have heard and Bailey seems to believe. When Nashville fenced off a downtown park for renovation lately, the homeless people who frequented it disappeared. “Where did they go?” Bailey asked.

Atnip laughed on the thought of individuals shipped in from Nashville. She was residing in close by Monterey when she lost her home and needed to ship her children to reside together with her parents. She has acquired some government assist, but not sufficient to get her back on her ft, she mentioned. At one point she obtained 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 had been working as delivery drivers till it broke down. Now she’s afraid they will lose the automotive and have to move to a tent, although she isn’t positive the place they'll pitch it.

“It seems like once one factor goes flawed, it sort of snowballs,” Atnip said. “We have been earning profits with DoorDash. Our payments have been paid. We had been saving. Then the car goes kaput and the whole lot goes dangerous.”

Eldridge, who has labored with Cookeville’s homeless for a decade, is an surprising advocate of the tenting ban. He said he needs to continue serving to the homeless, however some people aren’t motivated to improve their situation. Some are addicted to drugs, he said, and a few are hiding from legislation enforcement. Eldridge estimates there are about 60 folks residing outside roughly completely in Cookeville, and he is aware of them all.

“Most of them have been right here a couple of years, and never once have they requested for housing help,” he said.

Eldridge knows his position is unpopular with different advocates.

“The large drawback with this legislation is that it does nothing to resolve homelessness. In reality, it should make the problem worse,” stated Bobby Watts, CEO of the National Healthcare for the Homeless Council. “Having a felony in your record makes it hard to qualify for some kinds of housing, more durable to get a job, harder to qualify for benefits.”

Not everybody wants to be in a crowded shelter with a curfew, but individuals will move off the streets given the suitable alternatives, Watts said. Homelessness among U.S. military veterans, for example, has been reduce nearly in half over the previous decade through a mixture 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 with her children. Many people are just one paycheck or one tragedy away from being on the streets, she stated. Even in her community of 5,000, inexpensive housing could be very arduous to come by.

“If in case you have a felony in your file — 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 folks,” he mentioned of Cookeville law enforcement. However he doesn’t know what may happen in different parts 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 all of them worked together it would mean “loads of assets and potential funding sources to assist those in need,” he mentioned.

However other advocates don’t think threatening folks with a felony is an efficient manner to assist them.

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