With public tenting a felony, Tennessee homeless seek refuge

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Miranda Atnip lost her home through the coronavirus pandemic after her boyfriend moved out and she fell behind on payments. Living in a automobile, the 34-year-old worries every single day about getting cash for food, finding somewhere to bathe, and saving up enough money for an residence the place her three youngsters can dwell along 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 local public property equivalent to parks.

“Actually, it’s going to be exhausting,” Atnip mentioned 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 famous that nobody has been convicted underneath that legislation and stated he doesn’t count on this one to be enforced a lot, both. Neither does Luke Eldridge, a man who has worked with homeless individuals in the metropolis of Cookeville and supports Bailey’s plan — in part as a result of he hopes it's going to spur individuals who care concerning the homeless to work with him on long-term options.

The legislation requires that violators obtain no less than 24 hours notice earlier than an arrest. The felony cost is punishable by up to six years in jail and the lack of voting rights.

“It’s going to be as much as prosecutors ... if they need to problem a felony,” Bailey stated. “However it’s only going to come to that if individuals really don’t need to transfer.”

After several years of regular decline, homelessness in the USA began increasing in 2017. A survey in January 2020 discovered for the first time that the variety of unsheltered homeless individuals exceeded those in shelters. The problem was exacerbated by COVID-19, with shelters limiting capacity.

Public strain to do one thing in regards to the growing variety of highly visible homeless encampments has pushed even many traditionally liberal cities to clear them. Although camping has typically been regulated by local vagrancy laws, Texas handed a statewide ban last year. Municipalities that fail to enforce the ban threat losing state funding. Several different states have introduced comparable payments, however Tennessee is the one one to make tenting a felony.

Bailey’s district consists of Cookeville, a city of about 35,000 individuals between Nashville and Knoxville, the place the native newspaper has chronicled rising concern with the rising variety of homeless people. The Herald-Citizen reported final 12 months that complaints about panhandlers nearly doubled between 2019 and 2020, from 157 to 300. In 2021, the town installed indicators encouraging residents to offer to charities as a substitute of panhandlers. And the City Council twice thought of panhandling bans.

The Republican lawmaker acknowledges that complaints from Cookeville received his consideration. Metropolis council members have informed him that Nashville ships its homeless here, Bailey said. It’s a rumor many in Cookeville have heard and Bailey seems to consider. When Nashville fenced off a downtown park for renovation not too long ago, the homeless individuals who frequented it disappeared. “Where did they go?” Bailey asked.

Atnip laughed at the idea of people shipped in from Nashville. She was residing in close by Monterey when she lost her house and had to send her children to stay with her mother and father. She has received some authorities help, however not sufficient to get her back on her toes, she mentioned. At one point she received a housing voucher but couldn’t find a landlord who would accept it. She and her new husband saved enough to finance a used automobile and were working as delivery drivers until it broke down. Now she’s afraid they'll lose the automotive and have to move to a tent, although she isn’t positive where they will pitch it.

“It looks as if as soon as one factor goes improper, it form of snowballs,” Atnip said. “We have been earning money with DoorDash. Our bills have been paid. We have been saving. Then the automotive goes kaput and everything goes bad.”

Eldridge, who has labored with Cookeville’s homeless for a decade, is an surprising advocate of the tenting ban. He mentioned he needs to continue helping the homeless, however some folks aren’t motivated to improve their situation. Some are addicted to drugs, he said, and some are hiding from legislation enforcement. Eldridge estimates there are about 60 people dwelling outdoors kind of permanently in Cookeville, and he knows them all.

“Most of them have been right here a number of years, and not once have they requested for housing help,” he stated.

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

“The big downside with this regulation is that it does nothing to unravel homelessness. Actually, it would make the issue worse,” said Bobby Watts, CEO of the National Healthcare for the Homeless Council. “Having a felony in your report makes it laborious to qualify for some varieties of housing, more durable to get a job, harder to qualify for advantages.”

Not everybody desires to be in a crowded shelter with a curfew, however individuals will transfer off the streets given the precise opportunities, Watts mentioned. Homelessness among U.S. army veterans, for instance, has been lower nearly in half over the past decade through a combination of housing subsidies and social providers.

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

Tina Lomax, who runs Seeds of Hope of Tennessee in nearby Sparta, was once homeless with her children. Many people 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 arduous to come by.

“When you have a felony in your file — holy smokes!” she stated.

Eldridge, like Sen. Bailey, stated he doesn’t anticipate many people 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. But he doesn’t know what would possibly happen in different components of the state.

He hopes the new legislation will spur some of its opponents to work with him on long-term options for Cookeville’s homeless. If they all worked together it might mean “plenty of assets and potential funding sources to assist those in want,” he mentioned.

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

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