With public tenting a felony, Tennessee homeless search refuge

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Miranda Atnip lost her home throughout the coronavirus pandemic after her boyfriend moved out and she or he fell behind on payments. Dwelling in a automotive, the 34-year-old worries daily about getting cash for meals, discovering someplace to bathe, and saving up sufficient money for an condo where her three kids can dwell along with her again.

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

“Actually, it’s going to be laborious,” Atnip stated of the regulation, 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 expansion, Sen. Paul Bailey famous that nobody has been convicted underneath that regulation and said he doesn’t count on this one to be enforced a lot, both. Neither does Luke Eldridge, a person who has worked with homeless folks within the metropolis of Cookeville and helps Bailey’s plan — partially as a result of he hopes it should spur individuals who care in regards to the homeless to work with him on long-term solutions.

The law requires that violators obtain at the least 24 hours discover earlier than an arrest. The felony cost is punishable by up to six years in prison and the loss of voting rights.

“It’s going to be up to prosecutors ... in the event that they wish to issue a felony,” Bailey mentioned. “But it’s solely going to come back to that if individuals really don’t wish to move.”

After a number of years of regular decline, homelessness in america started growing in 2017. A survey in January 2020 discovered for the primary time that the variety of unsheltered homeless folks exceeded these in shelters. The issue was exacerbated by COVID-19, with shelters limiting capacity.

Public stress to do one thing about the growing variety of extremely seen homeless encampments has pushed even many traditionally liberal cities to clear them. Although tenting has typically been regulated by local vagrancy laws, Texas passed a statewide ban last yr. Municipalities that fail to implement the ban danger losing state funding. Several other states have launched related bills, however Tennessee is the only one to make tenting a felony.

Bailey’s district contains Cookeville, a metropolis of about 35,000 individuals between Nashville and Knoxville, where the native newspaper has chronicled growing 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 town installed indicators 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 attention. City council members have instructed him that Nashville ships its homeless right here, Bailey mentioned. It’s a rumor many in Cookeville have heard and Bailey appears to imagine. When Nashville fenced off a downtown park for renovation not too long ago, the homeless individuals who frequented it disappeared. “The place did they go?” Bailey requested.

Atnip laughed at the idea of individuals shipped in from Nashville. She was dwelling in nearby Monterey when she misplaced her residence and had to ship her children to live along with her dad and mom. She has acquired some authorities help, but not sufficient to get her again on her ft, she mentioned. At one point she acquired a housing voucher however couldn’t discover a landlord who would settle for it. She and her new husband saved sufficient to finance a used automobile and were working as delivery drivers till it broke down. Now she’s afraid they'll lose the automobile and have to maneuver to a tent, though she isn’t sure the place they will pitch it.

“It looks as if once one factor goes fallacious, it kind of snowballs,” Atnip mentioned. “We had been making a living with DoorDash. Our bills were paid. We had been saving. Then the automobile goes kaput and every little thing goes bad.”

Eldridge, who has labored with Cookeville’s homeless for a decade, is an unexpected advocate of the tenting ban. He stated he wants to continue serving to the homeless, but some folks aren’t motivated to enhance their scenario. Some are addicted to medication, he mentioned, and a few are hiding from regulation enforcement. Eldridge estimates there are about 60 folks residing outdoors kind of permanently in Cookeville, and he is aware of all of them.

“Most of them have been right here just a few years, and not as soon as have they asked for housing help,” he stated.

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

“The massive downside with this law is that it does nothing to solve homelessness. In fact, it will make the problem worse,” said Bobby Watts, CEO of the Nationwide Healthcare for the Homeless Council. “Having a felony in your document makes it exhausting to qualify for some sorts of housing, tougher to get a job, more durable to qualify for advantages.”

Not everyone desires to be in a crowded shelter with a curfew, but folks will move off the streets given the right alternatives, Watts said. Homelessness among U.S. military veterans, for example, has been lower almost in half over the past decade by means of a combination of housing subsidies and social companies.

“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 with her youngsters. Many individuals are just one paycheck or one tragedy away from being on the streets, she said. Even in her group of 5,000, reasonably priced housing is very onerous to come by.

“When you've got a felony in your record — holy smokes!” she said.

Eldridge, like Sen. Bailey, stated 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 legislation enforcement. But he doesn’t know what would possibly happen in other elements 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 collectively it would mean “lots of resources and attainable funding sources to assist these in want,” he said.

However different advocates don’t suppose threatening individuals with a felony is an efficient manner to help them.

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