When Lisa A. learned that Tennessee had made camping on public land a felony, she wrote a poem to express her frustration.
“Felonious Sleeping”
My state ID says Tennessee
Our public property is for all to see
But don’t touch
The park is for everyone but me
In 2022, Tennessee became the first state to make camping on public land a felony. Lisa was having trouble finding a stable place to live. She was living in a camper van in a friend’s yard after spending some time in a tent. (She requested that her last name be withheld in order to avoid stigma while rebuilding her life.)
During the COVID-19 pandemic, she, like many others, lost her home. As visible homelessness increased nationwide, legislation began to emerge.
Tennessee had already passed legislation prohibiting camping on most state-owned property in 2012, during the Occupy Wall Street movement. In 2020, amid the pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests, lawmakers increased the penalties to a felony.
In 2022, legislators expanded that law to make it illegal to camp on any public property, unless otherwise stated. The class E felony carries a penalty of up to six years in prison and a $3,000 fine.
This year saw a steady stream of new legislation.
“Advocates have seen huge waves of bills that punish people experiencing homelessness for being homeless,” said Lindsey Krinks, co-founder of housing advocacy group Open Table Nashville. “They punish people that have nowhere else to go.”
‘No dignity’
Krinks spent the majority of the session lobbying legislators to amend or reconsider a number of bills.
One new law expedites the removal of encampments beneath highways or bridges. Krinks refers to it as a “sister” to the felony camping bill of 2022.
“Both bills operate under the assumption that homelessness is something that can be kept out of sight, out of mind. It’s like a band-aid,” Krinks explained. “It’s dressing something up on the outside without addressing the underlying causes of homelessness.”
The new law directs the Tennessee Department of Transportation to collaborate with local governments and partner organizations to remove temporary shelters within 30 days of a resident complaint.
That timeline conflicts with Nashville’s approach to clearing encampments.
Nashville is home to nearly 40% of Tennessee’s unhoused population, or approximately 8,000 people. Over the last three years, Metro has committed to a strategy of closing encampments once providers have connected residents to housing.
This has used pandemic relief funds to provide support services, clean up encampments, and expand shelter options, including the use of motel rooms as transitional housing.
The city’s process has its critics. Metro is currently working to clear out Old Tent City, an encampment located south of downtown near the Cumberland River. For nearly 40 years, the area has been home to a community of homeless Nashvillians. Last month, residents received 60-day eviction notices.
Now, a few residents have signed a petition requesting more time, permanent (rather than temporary) housing options, and outdoor space for those who struggle to live indoors.
“You also have to realize that there are some of us who struggle with being inside, in a box,” residents stated in the petition. “It is due to our past traumas. Some people have mental breakdowns indoors. We need more options.”
Krinks believes that homelessness is a social service issue rather than a criminal one.
“We know that housing and support services is the most effective way to end homelessness,” Krinks told the crowd. “We want people to have housing and the support they need — not to end up in ERs that are costly, not to end up in jails and prisons that are costly, not end up at the morgue, which is too often what we see our people doing.”
Sen. Brent Taylor, a Republican from Memphis, introduced many of the homelessness bills this session.
He made it a priority after receiving constituent complaints in 2023, early in his term. Taylor says he does not intend to criminalize homelessness in the same way that the 2022 law did; instead, he hopes to establish a statewide process.
“[The] bill basically directs TDOT to develop a plan including local stakeholders and local nonprofits that are working with homeless people,” according to Taylor. “So that when a homeless encampment crops up, there’s actually a process that we follow that will get it removed quickly.”
Taylor disagrees with advocates who want to keep encampment spaces.
“There is no dignity living under a bridge,” Taylor said. “Whatever life circumstances and life choices have led people to have to live under a bridge is not getting better by continuing to live under a bridge.”
However, “the shelters are full. “The housing waiting lists are long or closed,” Krinks stated.
“We need places for people to be able to exist and we know that it’s way more expensive to do expensive campsite removals, to lock folks up, to cite, to fine or arrest them for simply existing.”
‘Downhill fast’
Another new measure introduced this year makes it easier to evict people sleeping on vacant commercial properties. It follows similar anti-squatting legislation for residential properties passed last year.
Organizations that help people find housing are also subject to new rules. That falls under another of Taylor’s bills, which exposes charities to lawsuits if the people they help are undocumented and go on to commit crimes.
Judith Tackett, who works on homelessness in the non-profit and government sectors (and previously directed Metro’s Homeless Impact Division), says the measure feels overly punitive.
“Now we’re not just going after the people that already have nothing,” said Tackett, “we’re also going after people who try to actually solve what we say we want to solve — which is homelessness.”
Tackett discovered that removing campsites in 30 days does not account for the months it typically takes to house people. Furthermore, the disruption may result in the loss of property and documents, both of which are required for access to resources. Furthermore, felony convictions can make it difficult to find work and housing in the future.
“It is really, really hard for people that have felonies to re-enter into society,” Tackett told the crowd. “So why would we create these barriers and make it harder for people to work rather than support them in their job searches?”
Lisa, who now lives in a subsidized apartment and works part-time, wants legislators to better understand what it’s like to be homeless.
“People are not as resilient as we think,” she said. “We need water, sleep, and food, and it must be safe. If you don’t have that, things will go downhill quickly. And I challenge you to try it.”
