Bill targeting homeless camping dies in committee
Advocates working to help homeless people are celebrating the death of a bill last week that would have criminalized camping on public property anywhere in the state.
House Bill 0978, sponsored by Rep. Ryan Williams, R-Cookeville, passed the House floor last week but its Senate counterpart, Senate Bill 1610, sponsored by Sen. Paul Bailey, R-Sparta, only received one vote of support during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday.
The bill sought to make soliciting or camping on a state or interstate highway or under a bridge or overpass a misdemeanor offense. It also broadened the language of the 2012 Equal Access to Public Property Act to make camping on all public property, not just property owned by the state, a criminal offense.
Tennessee lawmakers already made camping on state property a felony in response to protestors camping outside the state Capitol last year.
Outreach organizations including Open Table Nashville and People Loving Nashville came out against the bill in recent weeks, saying the legislation would criminalize people for being poor.
“There are already laws on the book that prevent camping and even just people’s existence and sleeping on state [and] private property, so the only place left is public property,” said the Rev. Lindsay Krinks, co-founder and director of education and advocacy for Open Table Nashville, during Tuesday’s Senate committee hearing.
Individuals who violate the law would get a citation for a first offense, but those with a second violation would face a $50 fine and 20 to 40 hours of community service.
BARRIERS TO HOUSING
A misdemeanor on someone’s record can hurt a person’s ability to get housing, Krinks said.
“Things as small as that can keep people trapped in cycles of poverty and even community service for people who are struggling every day is a really, really hard thing to do,” Krinks said.
Bailey said he introduced the legislation after hearing concerns from Cookeville law enforcement about homeless people moving — or being moved — from urban cities to outlying communities.
“Don’t lose sight of the fact that if someone is camping or soliciting on an interstate highway or a state highway they are currently in violation of what current law says, we are just extending this to local properties and locals streets,” Bailey told his fellow committee members.
Advocates say up to 20,000 people are experiencing homelessness in Nashville since the pandemic hit a year ago. They want solutions to the ballooning homelessness crisis.
“The answer to housing people and the answer to homelessness in our state is simply housing … I am tired of tents and sleeping bags. I want housing for our folks. I want them to not be criminalized for being poor,” said Rev. Ingrid McIntyre, co-founder and former executive director of Open Table.