CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – As Jerry Pace talked about his most recent arrest for criminal trespass, possession and public intoxication, the hope in his eyes about the future faded.
“They’re wanting $100 a day to be in their jail, and then court costs,” the 57-year-old said, looking at the ground. “That’s what hurts me a lot.”
Just from his last arrest and conviction on simple possession and criminal trespass, Pace owes the courts close to $13,000. For the other misdemeanors he’s been arrested on over the last 10 years, Pace – who has no money, no job, no car and no home – estimates he owes close to $200,000 in court fees in Montgomery County.
This will continue to pose a challenge for Pace’s recovery, regardless of whether the rehabilitation for his substance abuse works.
Criminal trespass
The criminalization of homelessness is just one of the barriers people have to overcome to get back on their feet. Citations, arrests and fines seem to be regular occurrences for folks living in limbo, trying to find a way to survive day-to-day.
But what does that mean and look like in Clarksville, with 220 people estimated to be homeless? What are the real ramifications of having nowhere to go?
Arrests for criminal trespass happen frequently to people living in Clarksville without a permanent place to stay, and according to Montgomery County court data reviewed by Clarksville Now from Sept. 15, 2020, to March 15, 2021, over 13% of those arrested and charged with criminal trespass were experiencing homelessness.
Those charged with criminal trespass who were homeless at the time owed an average of $770.12 in court fees. This is not counting other charges a person might face from living without a home – just this one offense.
“They’re criminalized if they are on private property. Sometimes, not all the time, but they don’t know if it’s state, federal or private property. How is a homeless person supposed to know that?” Sherry Nicholson of YAIpaks Outreach asked.
Homelessness as a crime
Those struggling with homelessness often find themselves unable to within the law, in a society that often misunderstands them.
“We’ve had people living in cars, but they’re getting reported because they can’t stay in a parking lot. They have to bounce around parking lot to parking lot because they feel unsafe,” Nicholson said.
Feral animals living on private property are often given better treatment.
“We’ll take the risks of getting mauled or scratched by a cat or a dog to save it and get it to the vet, but we step over human life and are now willing to give them a misdemeanor because they have no place to live,” Nicholson said.
And putting people experiencing homelessness in jail doesn’t address the issue of what led to their crime. When anyone dealing with substance abuse in particular is arrested for drug possession or public intoxication, and they do have some time of sobriety, this doesn’t fix the problems behind their substance abuse.
“While they’re incarcerated, we don’t do a whole lot to deal with the underlying issues of why they were using,” said Stephanie Cooper, a Centerstone program manager and community support specialist.
“When you didn’t do anything to address the issue, and you send them back out to the real world, they start using again,” she said.
And when we don’t do anything to help these people regain stability such as housing, employment or treatment, the problem and the roots of this issue are never truly fixed.
Looking for solutions
A solution isn’t quick or cheap, but doing nothing sometimes leaves people with a hard choice between having a criminal record or staying alive.
“A lot of times if you’re homeless, and especially on the cold nights that we have, a stay in jail for a while and a record is maybe better than staying out on the street and freezing to death,” said Dennis Newburn, director of the city’s Housing and Community Development department.
“I know we have got some phenomenal (police) officers that want to see something happen, but I don’t think they have the answers either,” Nicholson said.
Clarksville Police spokesman Detective Michael Patterson agreed, but at the end of the day, police still have a job to do.
“We’ve had officers take the homeless to shelters and other things like that when general calls are made, but when a police report is filed (for trespassing), we have to act on it,” Patterson said.
Nicholson thinks these issues, in combination with the debt that piles on from arrests from the criminalization of homelessness, often comes from a lack of compassion across the board.
“Personally, my opinion is that we’ve got to start looking at a human life as more valuable than the almighty dollar,” Nicholson said.
Newburn said sympathy just isn’t found in our judicial system, even when that debt becomes a recognizable hinderance to recovery.
“If the court is not necessarily sympathetic to those challenges, a person ends up with a record that might not have been necessary in the first place,” Newburn said.
Even if we begin to address the issue of criminalizing people who can’t afford or don’t have the wherewithal to secure housing, how could the city begin to create solutions for affordable housing or long-term shelters for folks living in limbo?
Nicholson had a ton of ideas on how to address the lack of affordable housing. One being the city designating a plot of land near resources that would allow organizations like YAIPaks to help our neighbors get back on their feet.
“OK, so we can’t get them into housing and we know that. Why can’t we at least allot a piece of property that’s a safe zone that the organizations can come together and oversee that safe zone and provide them a place with their tents?”
Part 2 in a series, “Homeless in Clarksville.” Read Part 1, “One man’s big step to get back off the streets.”