He lived in an East Nashville park for years. Then, Tennessee made his survival a crime

A makeshift home made of a simple camping enclosure was all a 49-year-old, chronically unhoused Black man had in a Nashville public park. He had lived there for several years—until he was arrested, tased, and charged with a felony simply for camping on public property.

His experience reflects a stark national trend. Following a recent Supreme Court ruling, new laws across at least 14 states—including Tennessee—mean unhoused individuals like Joseph Lamont Williams face up to several years in prison for sleeping on public land, an act now classified as a felony according to the National Homelessness Law Center.

Speaking with NPR, Williams explained that he was one of two people arrested in the park on June 28. He faced two felony counts of camping and a misdemeanor charge of evading arrest under Tennessee’s strict anti-camping statute.

Passed in 2022, the law criminalizes basic survival activities like erecting tents or using bedding on public land between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. Now classified as a Class E felony, a conviction carries a penalty of up to six years in prison and a $3,000 fine.

Related: Tennessee Senator Warns That New State Map Could Be the Biggest Blow to Black Political Power Since Reconstruction

Williams pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge and was released from jail after nine days, according to NPR. Alissa Heydari, the court-appointed attorney who represented him in the camping case, noted that the arrest “makes what is already a very difficult life situation for Mr. Williams harder and worse.”

Upon his release, Williams was picked up by John Lozier, a neighbor and retired social worker who befriended him years ago while walking his dog through South Inglewood Park. With nowhere else to go, Williams asked Lozier to take him back to the same park where he was arrested in East Nashville—a historically Black community that has rapidly gentrified over the last two decades, displacing many of its longtime residents.

“It is basically because of finances,” 30-year East Nashville resident Brenda Ross told News Channel 5. “The rent has tripled over the last five years. A lot of people can’t afford to stay in the neighborhood anymore, and the developers are buying up everything.”

Williams agreed, recalling how the neighborhood has “changed so much” throughout the years. “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,” he told NPR.

Despite the neighborhood’s transformation, Williams refused to be pushed out of the place he called home.

He’s turned down shelter beds for years, and said he doesn’t trust the system or service providers. So, Williams adapted. He chose to sleep on picnic tables, the sun became his oven to warm his food, and he gets his daily workout on the park’s monkey bars.

Although Williams avoids dwelling on the possibility of being arrested again—using long walks and songwriting to keep his mind off the anxiety—advocates for the unhoused say the anti-camping laws are cruel and counterproductive.

“Punishing people and using police to address homelessness only makes the crisis worse, and it prolongs people’s experience of homelessness,” said Devon Krinks, who oversees Cicero’s homelessness and public safety policy efforts, NPR reported. “Most people I know experiencing homelessness are so hungry for freedom, for agency, for their dignity to be seen and recognized and understood. Jail erodes every aspect of a person’s agency.”

Last year, Old Tent City, Nashville’s oldest homeless enclave, was demolished, WPLN News reported. The encampment, located south of downtown near the Cumberland River and Interstate 24, had been a community for the unhoused for over 40 years. More than 100 people called Old Tent City home.

Now, it’s encircled by no-trespassing signs and fences as the future home of a 25-acre riverfront site, Wharf Park.

“Wharf Park is the next great pearl in a string of riverfront parks that have become the defining public spaces for Nashville’s thriving downtown and the region,” Agency Landscape + Planning said. “The future Wharf Park is endowed with great views, significant topography and expansive acreage.”

The Homelessness Planning Council reported that homelessness in Nashville has been on the rise. In December 2025, roughly 4,300 people experience homelessness in the city, an uptick of more than 30% in less than a year.