Transportation subcommittee advances bill directing TDOT to adopt policy for removing camping personal property

House Bill 197, sponsored by Representative Clay Leatherwood, advanced from the House Transportation Subcommittee to the full Transportation Committee on an 8–1 vote after the committee adopted an amendment.

The bill would require the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) to develop and implement a policy for the removal of personal property used for camping on state and interstate highways, including shoulders, berms, rights of way, under bridges and in underpasses. "The department shall develop and implement the policy pursuant to this section," Leatherwood said while describing the bill. "That policy will include local homeless coalitions, nonprofit organizations, entities that provide transitional housing and related services."

Why it matters: proponents and service providers told the committee that many people living in makeshift camps on TDOT right of way lack access to sufficient shelter or housing options, and that removals carried out without coordination can destroy documents and other property essential for people to regain housing.

Two nonprofit witnesses who work in outreach urged the committee to add requirements they say would reduce harm.…