Tennessee’s recent felony charges against Joseph Williams in Nashville for camping on public property mirror national efforts to prosecute homelessness as a serious crime rather than addressing it as a failure of public housing policy. Since the 2024 Supreme Court decision allowed these laws—and the Trump Administration issued an Executive Order in 2025 encouraging increasingly punitive tactics—11 states and over 350 local municipalities have enacted laws that punish vulnerable people with fines and incarceration rather than provide them with the housing and services they need. Cities reluctant to pursue such punitive policies have been threatened by state legislatures with political retribution.
Clearly this is cruel and counterproductive. Mr. Williams was tased, arrested, and then spent 9 days in jail (though he was threatened with up to 6 years in prison)—only to be released back to the same park, but this time traumatized and with a criminal record. He was offered no housing or support services. His story is not unique as increasingly aggressive encampment sweeps happen every day across the nation.
“From a health care point of view, these punitive laws disrupt existing services and care and make it much more difficult to address the root causes of homelessness for people like Mr. Williams. It would be much more effective—and less expensive—to provide him housing that comes with support services tailored to his needs.”
– Bobby Watts, CEO
We call on the State of Tennessee (and other jurisdictions) to overturn its law that makes homelessness a felony. Clearly housing, health care, and support services are the answer to homelessness, not further incarceration, trauma, and public scorn.
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Related resource: Impact of Encampment Sweeps on People Experiencing Homelessness
