Homeless Man Charged with Felony for Camping in Tennessee

A 49-year-old chronically homeless man in Nashville has become one of the first individuals prosecuted under Tennessee’s unique anti-camping law, which makes sleeping on public property a Class E felony — the only law of its kind in the United States. Joseph Lamont Williams was arrested on June 28 at South Inglewood Park in East Nashville, where he had been living under a picnic pavilion for several years, and charged with two felony counts of camping on state property, according to NPR.

The Law and Its Origins

Tennessee Code Annotated § 39-14-414, enacted via HB0978 in 2022, makes it a Class E felony to camp on public property without authorization, punishable by up to six years in prison and a $3,000 fine. The law defines “camping” broadly to include placing personal belongings for future use or sitting on a laid blanket between 10 pm and 7 am. Tennessee is the only state in the nation to elevate public camping to a felony offense.

The path to this law began in 2012, when Tennessee passed a prohibition on camping on most state-owned property during the Occupy Wall Street movement. In 2020, amid the pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests, lawmakers elevated the penalties to a felony. Two years later, HB0978 expanded the ban to cover all public property, as WPLN News reported.

The Arrest and Legal Resolution

When police officers told Williams they had a warrant for his arrest, he attempted to flee and was tased. He was charged with two felony counts of camping and one misdemeanor count of evading arrest. Williams spent nine days in jail before reaching a plea agreement: he pled guilty to the misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to time served, while prosecutors dropped the two felony counts.

Upon his release on July 6, Williams asked to be taken back to the same park. “The slickest thing was asking me if I knew what I was pleading to,” Williams told NPR. “I’m just trying to plead to get out of here.”

Alissa Heydari, Williams’ court-appointed attorney, said the arrest “makes what is already a very difficult life situation for Mr. Williams harder and worse.”

A National Movement to Criminalize Homelessness

Williams’ case unfolds against a backdrop of rapidly expanding anti-camping legislation across the country. Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson — which held that cities can ban people from sleeping and camping in public even when shelter space is lacking — more than 300 municipalities have enacted or expanded such bans. Eleven states have passed homeless camping bans in the last four years.

Many of these laws have been influenced by the Cicero Institute, a conservative think tank founded by Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale. The institute advocates for using the threat of arrest to push homeless individuals toward shelter and services, arguing that camping bans are “compassionate” tools to redirect unsheltered people to safer environments.

Devon Kurtz, who oversees Cicero’s homelessness policy efforts, told NPR: “My hope is that no one is ever convicted under any of these camping bans. The intention is not to jail people. I’ve also said, however, that sometimes, at the margins, it is essential that law enforcement has the ability to jail them because it can save lives.”

Homelessness on the Rise in Nashville

Nashville’s Homelessness Planning Council estimated that roughly 4,300 people experience homelessness in the city as of December 2025 — an increase of more than 30% in less than a year. Nearly 40% of Tennessee’s estimated 8,000 unhoused residents live in Nashville.

The city’s oldest homeless encampment, “Old Tent City” along the Cumberland River, was disbanded in 2025 after existing since the 1980s. Security cameras have been installed around public parks, and benches have been removed from downtown Nashville. In April 2025, Tennessee lawmakers added more penalties, including a law requiring the Department of Transportation to clear encampments under highways within 30 days of a resident complaint.

A Changing Neighborhood

Williams grew up in East Nashville, a historically African American community that has rapidly gentrified over the last two decades. “It has changed so much,” Williams said. “The color boundaries, let’s keep it real, that’s changed. Putting more, better housing and stuff like that around. Knocking some old ones down.”

Lindsey Krinks, co-founder of Open Table Nashville, a nonprofit homeless support organization, criticized the approach: “Welcome to the city of Nashville, where luxury condos are going up every few blocks, and everyone living in their shadows are being left out of the progress.” Krinks argued that “punishing people and using police to address homelessness only makes the crisis worse, and it prolongs people’s experience of homelessness.”

Analysis and Implications

Williams’ case sets a significant precedent for enforcement of Tennessee’s felony camping law. If broadly enforced, the law could dramatically increase the homeless prison population in Tennessee, and felony records would create permanent barriers to employment and housing — potentially trapping people in homelessness.

Nationally, HUD’s 2025 data found more than 155,000 chronically homeless people in the United States. Chronic homelessness has grown even as overall homelessness dipped slightly after reaching record levels in 2024.

The debate remains sharply divided between advocates of the “Housing First” model — which prioritizes stable housing before addressing other needs — and enforcement-based approaches favored by groups like the Cicero Institute. Meanwhile, states like North Carolina are also pursuing camping bans, though Governor Josh Stein recently vetoed such legislation there.

What’s Next

Williams has returned to his routines in the park — long walks, making up songs, breakfasts with a friend who helped secure his release. But the threat of rearrest looms. Advocates are watching to see whether Tennessee’s law will face constitutional challenges under the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, and whether other states will follow Tennessee’s lead in making camping a felony — or whether the backlash against cases like Williams’ will deter such measures.

For now, the question remains unresolved: can the criminal justice system effectively address homelessness, or does prosecuting people for sleeping outside only deepen the crisis?