Hundreds of Kentuckians have been cited in the year since a new state law went into effect making it a crime to sleep outside. Homeless outreach coordinators across the state say the increased enforcement is pushing already marginalized people farther outside of populated areas and farther from the resources that can help them move out of homelessness.
Every Sunday, a team of volunteers with L.O.U. Outreach gather at Beargrass Christian Church in Louisville. They collect clean clothes and socks, ice cold water bottles, hygiene products and sack lunches to deliver to the city’s unsheltered population in the sweltering July heat.
Out on his route, L.O.U Outreach Executive Director David Smillie pulls over to greet a woman. She’s waiting for him, and introduces herself as Kelda. She said she’s “always, always, always” on the look out for police. She echoed what outreach workers across Kentucky are saying: Fear of citations for sleeping outside is making it harder for her and others to access resources.
“I'm 53 years old. I've never been arrested a day in my life. If you want to take me for trespassing, let's do it,” Kelda said. “But I don't want to go to jail.”
More than 400 Kentuckians have been charged with the crime of sleeping or camping outside as the result of the Safety Kentucky Act, which took effect last summer. The omnibus tough-on-crime bill made it illegal for a person to sleep, intend to sleep, or set up camp on undesignated public property like sidewalks or underneath overpasses.
Even with the ban in place, the number of unsheltered homeless people went up across the state, according to the January Kentucky Housing Corporation point-in-time survey released this month. That’s meant to be a snapshot of homelessness on a given day in Kentucky, six months after the statewide camping ban went into effect.
The statewide data, which providers agree does not necessarily present the full picture of homelessness across the year, show that fewer people are in transitional housing compared to a decade ago, while the number of unsheltered individuals has exploded from 742 people in 2015 to 1,998 this January. The line continued to trend upward in this year’s count, regardless of the Safer Kentucky Act’s ban.
The group of Louisville area Republicans who sponsored the law said they believed it would push people to seek out drug addiction and mental health services. Louisville GOP Rep. John Hodgson, one of the co-sponsors, said he believes the camping ban has been “very effective” in the city, in part because there are fewer encampments. He said the ban is working “exactly as desired.”
“The vast majority of the people in these encampments have untreated drug addiction, chronic mental health issues, or severe difficulties adjusting to a normal life in society,” Hodgson said in a statement to Kentucky Public Radio.
Rep. Jason Nemes, a Louisville Republican, said the ban is working as intended. He also pointed to the number of substance abuse treatment beds available in Kentucky, which was the country’s highest per capita as of 2022, and $22.5 million in state funds directed toward Louisville’s Community Care Campus.
"Let’s remember the reasons we enacted these provisions in HB 5. First, we wanted to reduce the crime that was attendant to homeless encampments. Second, we wanted to protect the property rights of the citizens that live and work near homeless encampments. Third, we wanted to get homeless citizens treatment," Nemes said in a statement. "All of those things are occurring."
Smillie and other homeless service providers in Kentucky say getting people into services has become more difficult with anxiety over enforcement of the ban at a high. People are more spread out and more wary of receiving a citation instead of assistance.
“What I'm seeing is this new hybrid of chronic and hidden homelessness, where people fearing citation or arrest are going deeper into hiding, whether that's way in the woods or into creek beds or into abandoned buildings, further from resources,” Smilie said.
He said even convincing some people to take part in K-Count was difficult this year.
“I had people in my office who didn't want to participate out of fear, fear and concern,” Smillie said.
It’s not just new state laws. Last week, Trump signed an executive order aimed at managing homelessness in the U.S. by committing people living on the streets to mental health institutions or drug treatment centers without their consent, which he says will "restore public order."
Homelessness across the state
Service providers across the state are also seeing side effects of the camping ban. Lacey Bowling, the executive director of Paducah Cooperative Ministries said she was almost surprised to see the recorded increase in homelessness across the state, even though she’s seen increased demand for homeless services at her organization.
“We're asking people to step up and be counted in a time where it's illegal to be homeless,” Bowling said. “I expected it to be lower because I'm not coming out to be counted and risking arrest or risking a misdemeanor just just to say I was counted.”
The number of people experiencing homelessness did dip slightly in McCracken County year-over-year based on the K-Count, falling from 192 people to 160 this year. Even so, Bowling said the need is as high as ever — she said last year they received 75 calls per month on average. This year, it’s 115 calls on average each month.
“It's just we can't keep up. And most of those calls are from folks in West Kentucky,” Bowling said. “We get calls from our surrounding areas like Ballard County, Livingston [County], where there are no services… There's homelessness in those areas too.”
Bruce Hill, a regional director for Welcome House based in Maysville, says he’s seen that same in rural areas in northern Kentucky. Building trust to eventually connect people has become an even more essential part of his job.
“People, if they feel like they're going to be harassed or potentially even arrested, more than likely will not come down and receive those services,” Hill said.
He described searching through rural areas during the K-Count, looking for homeless people in places not usually inhabited by people. They’ve always been hidden, harder to reach, but he said the anxiety of getting a ticket has made delivering services more difficult.
Amanda Couch is the interim executive director of Welcome House. She says that while she was conducting point-in-time surveys earlier this year, she also saw the extreme wariness of unsheltered people who were breaking the statewide camping ban.
“I knew that there were people living under this bridge, and I went down there, and although they were willing to participate, they said to me, they were like, did anybody see you come down here?” Couch said. “They definitely don't want to share that information, or where they're staying or where they're at.”
In Mason County, where Hill is located, they’ve gone from counting 31 people experiencing homelessness in 2015 to 83 people this year, the highest over the last decade for the county.
Out in southeastern Knox County, social services organization KCEOC Community Action says they’ve been in the community long enough to have built trust over decades.
“It's just word of mouth. People just start saying, ‘Hey, I've got a buddy that's staying over by this creek on this mountain, and there's probably four or five people there with him,’” said Beverly Isom, supportive services director. “It's just they trust us. We come in friendly. They know our agency.”
There is plenty of anxiety among people experiencing homelessness in Knox County even though police have generally not been aggressive with citing or arresting individuals, said Vice President for Program Operations Jennifer Smith with KCEOC. As of July 2, only one person had been cited for sleeping outside.
“They've been threatened that if you don't move those tents, if you don't do this, if you don't do that, you know, you're arrested,” Smith said.
Smith credits the reputation her organization has built with the community for allowing them to continue doing their outreach unencumbered, including while conducting the K-Count this year.
“We're not the police. We're not there to tell on people,” said Smith. “We said, ‘We just want to count and show that there's a need,’ and we take on stuff to help them, food and blankets.”
Knox County saw its own increase in homelessness this year, and have seen the number trend steadily upward for a decade. In 2015, the point-in-time survey recorded 18 individuals experiencing homelessness. This January, 220 people were experiencing homelessness on a given night, 80% of them unsheltered.
Tough Love?
According to the Safer Kentucky Act’s Republican sponsors, the point was to push people into services. Lawmakers referred to it as tough love.
“The police have reported to me that a number of chronic unhoused individuals who have refused treatment for years are now in rehab facilities or some form of supportive housing,” Hodgson said. “Sometimes people need a nudge to get the care they need, and court diversion into treatment provides that nudge.”
In a committee hearing last year, Hodgson said homeless individuals should not be allowed to live in public places and must instead seek treatment.
“We as a society need to step into there and say, ‘If you want to live out in the woods somewhere, that's okay. But you can't live here in this public place, and we need to encourage you to get into treatment,” Hodgson said.
Stokes with L.O.U Outreach says she’s been volunteering with the group for years, and has developed strong relationships with the people she helps each week. She’s seen those relationships be the turning point that gets someone into the care they need.
“We don't tell them what they need. They tell us what they need,” Stokes said. “Might take a week. It might take a year, but eventually they're going to ask for the help that we want them to have — the long-term care.”
An unsheltered Louisville couple are in the process of getting into new permanent supportive housing that’s set to open sometime in September. They asked to remain anonymous for fear of calling attention to themselves as people violating the street camping ban.
The woman says life on the streets has been difficult. She almost comes to tears, describing how police and random people have thrown away her belongings, including her son’s baby footprints.
“Some things you cannot get back. That's a piece of me that's gone forever,” she said.
Her partner says that every morning the police tell them to keep moving, forcing them farther out of sight.
“I've been moved every time. I've been moved every time this week,” he said. “It makes me feel like cattle sometimes.”
While they wait for the new housing to open up, the couple will still be on the streets, hoping to avoid a citation they cannot afford.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
This story was produced by the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom, a collaboration between West Virginia Public Broadcasting, WPLN and WUOT in Tennessee, LPM, WEKU, WKMS and WKU in Kentucky and NPR.
