Tennessee Solidarity Network for Housing and Homelessness
The TN Solidarity Network for Housing & Homelessness connects Tennesseans who are passionate about ending housing disparities and the criminalization of homelessness in our state. The short term goal of this network is to keep people across the state connected and informed when it comes to promoting legislation that creates and preserves affordable housing and moves toward the decriminalization of homelessness and poverty. The ultimate goal is to build the infrastructure for a statewide coalition that has a wide representation of rural and urban members and can mobilize quickly on issues of housing and homelessness.
By joining this network, you will stay up to date on state legislation related to these issues, as well as ways that you, your organization, or your faith community can help advocate for housing and the rights of our friends on the streets.
This network has been monitoring instances of the criminalization of homelessness across the state of Tennessee. You can help us with this effort by documenting any citations, arrests, threats of arrest, or misconduct by law enforcement towards anyone experiencing homelessness through our Criminalization Documentation Form. We’ve also created a TN Solidarity Network Needs Form to gain a deeper understanding of what people across the state would like to see this network focus on. We’d love to hear what needs you’re seeing in your community and how this network can best help!
The TN Solidarity Network was created in March of 2022 in direct response to the passage of “TN’s anti-camping law” – TN Public Law 986 amending TCA Sec. 39-14-414. This law went into effect on July 1, 2022 and makes camping on public property across the state a class E felony, punishable by up to six years in jail, a $3,000 fine, and the loss of voting rights. The new law amends TCA Sec. 39-14-414 (the Equal Access to Public Property Act of 2012) that was initially passed in response to Occupy Nashville in 2012 and then amended in 2020 in response to racial justice protests on state property after the murder of George Floyd.