With public tenting a felony, Tennessee homeless seek refuge

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Miranda Atnip misplaced her dwelling throughout the coronavirus pandemic after her boyfriend moved out and she fell behind on bills. Dwelling in a automotive, the 34-year-old worries every day about getting money for meals, finding someplace to shower, and saving up enough money for an condo where her three youngsters can dwell together with her once more.

Now she has a new fear: Tennessee is about to change into 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 exhausting,” Atnip stated of the law, 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 enlargement, Sen. Paul Bailey noted that nobody has been convicted below that law and stated 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 metropolis of Cookeville and helps Bailey’s plan — partly as a result of he hopes it can spur individuals who care in regards to the homeless to work with him on long-term solutions.

The regulation requires that violators obtain not 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 ... in the event that they want to problem a felony,” Bailey mentioned. “But it’s solely going to come back to that if people actually don’t wish to transfer.”

After a number of years of steady decline, homelessness in the USA began rising in 2017. A survey in January 2020 discovered for the first time that the number of unsheltered homeless people exceeded those in shelters. The problem was exacerbated by COVID-19, with shelters limiting capacity.

Public pressure to do one thing concerning the increasing 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 12 months. Municipalities that fail to enforce the ban risk dropping state funding. A number of other states have introduced similar bills, but Tennessee is the one one to make tenting a felony.

Bailey’s district contains Cookeville, a metropolis of about 35,000 individuals between Nashville and Knoxville, the place the native newspaper has chronicled rising concern with the increasing number of homeless individuals. The Herald-Citizen reported final yr that complaints about panhandlers nearly doubled between 2019 and 2020, from 157 to 300. In 2021, the town put in signs encouraging residents to give to charities as an alternative of panhandlers. And the City Council twice thought-about panhandling bans.

The Republican lawmaker acknowledges that complaints from Cookeville obtained his consideration. Metropolis council members have advised 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 individuals who frequented it disappeared. “The place did they go?” Bailey asked.

Atnip laughed on the idea of individuals shipped in from Nashville. She was living in nearby Monterey when she lost her home and needed to ship her kids to reside together with her parents. She has obtained some government help, but not sufficient to get her back on her toes, she stated. At one point she obtained a housing voucher however couldn’t find a landlord who would settle for it. She and her new husband saved enough to finance a used car and had been working as supply drivers until it broke down. Now she’s afraid they may lose the automobile and have to maneuver to a tent, although she isn’t sure the place they'll pitch it.

“It seems like once one factor goes improper, it type of snowballs,” Atnip said. “We had been earning profits with DoorDash. Our bills have been paid. We had been saving. Then the automotive goes kaput and everything goes dangerous.”

Eldridge, who has labored with Cookeville’s homeless for a decade, is an surprising advocate of the tenting ban. He stated he wants to proceed serving to the homeless, however some people aren’t motivated to enhance their state of affairs. Some are addicted to medication, he stated, and some are hiding from regulation enforcement. Eldridge estimates there are about 60 folks residing outdoors roughly permanently in Cookeville, and he knows them all.

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

Eldridge knows his place is unpopular with different advocates.

“The large problem with this regulation is that it does nothing to solve homelessness. In reality, it should make the problem worse,” stated Bobby Watts, CEO of the National Healthcare for the Homeless Council. “Having a felony on your document makes it onerous to qualify for some varieties of housing, tougher to get a job, tougher to qualify for benefits.”

Not everybody wants to be in a crowded shelter with a curfew, however people will move off the streets given the suitable alternatives, Watts said. Homelessness amongst U.S. navy veterans, for instance, has been minimize almost in half over the past decade through a mixture 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 together with her kids. Many individuals are just one paycheck or one tragedy away from being on the streets, she stated. Even in her neighborhood of 5,000, reasonably priced housing could be very laborious to come back by.

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

Eldridge, like Sen. Bailey, mentioned he doesn’t anticipate 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 individuals,” he said of Cookeville legislation enforcement. However he doesn’t know what may happen in different parts of the state.

He hopes the brand new law will spur a few of its opponents to work with him on long-term options for Cookeville’s homeless. If all of them worked together it will imply “quite a lot of sources and potential funding sources to help these in need,” he mentioned.

However different advocates don’t think threatening individuals with a felony is an efficient approach to assist them.

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