To keep homeless off benches, Tennessee city uses ‘hostile architecture,’ residents say
City officials in Tennessee are trying to curb illicit activity by installing wooden blocks on park benches, media outlets report.
But residents fear its sending the wrong message to homeless people who sleep there.
“Very few homeless people choose to be so,” one resident wrote on a petition to have the blocks removed. “If we can’t give them a place to find shelter, we shouldn’t block their only relief.”
The blocks were installed on benches in at least one city park, a nine-mile linear park known as the Greenbelt and other public areas, WJHL reported.
Kingsport is less than 40 miles from the North Carolina border.
City manager Chris McCartt told WJHL that drug paraphernalia left behind forced the city’s hand.
“By city ordinance, our parks are closed at night,” McCartt said, the media outlet reported. “And we have to go in and enforce that. We want individuals to be in a shelter, we do not want them to be in our parks.”
A combination of factors — including recent crime reports on the homeless and people expressing they felt unsafe in certain areas of the city — contributed to McCartt’s decision, WCYB reported.
But photos of the blocks circulating on social media drew residents’ ire.
By Tuesday, a change.org petition to “Remove hostile architecture from city benches” had garnered 5,522 signatures.
“Blocks or no blocks, tomorrow morning Kingsport will still have a drug epidemic, too many unsheltered homeless citizens, and over-burdened law enforcement,” Karen Boyd, who started the petition, wrote after closing it. “No matter which way this falls, there is still a lot of work to be done.”
The topic of homelessness also dominated a town hall meeting Monday night, the Times News reported, where Mayor Pat Shull said he supported the city’s decision.
Kingsport is home to roughly 130 homeless people, including those in emergency shelters and transitional housing, the newspaper reported.
City officials have spent the last several months discussing how to best “manage the issue,” according to the Times News.
But wooden blocks aren’t a solution, residents say.
“This is inhumane,” one person wrote on the petition. “You build parks for dogs with free water and poop bags but you won’t let people less fortunate sleep on a banch(sic)??? Not cool.”
