Content categorized as Encampments

USICH encampment engagement guidance critiqued for promoting site closures

USICH created seven principles of encampment engagement to assist communities that are hoping to address encampments. USICH’s guidance operates under a flawed rehousing system and promotes encampment closures.

D.C. funded 2400 vouchers. Less than 600 people have moved into housing

D.C. so far has housed just a fraction of the people experiencing chronic homelessness despite the availability of more funding this year.

A Housing Narrative Lab webinar challenges the common stories of homelessness

A webinar from the Housing Narrative Lab underlines the ways data and journalism fail to truly tell the story of homelessness.

West End encampment sweep displaces ‘staple of the community’

Artist experiencing homelessness’ belongings destroyed, and his presence as a community staple upended in encampment sweep.

Tossed in the trash: Residents at Union Station stripped of their belongings

The National Park Service cleared the 35-resident Union Station encampment on June 1, throwing away belongings and involuntarily committing one resident.

What role should police have in protecting people living in encampments?

Due to concerns for their immediate safety, some encampment residents have expressed a desire for greater police presence around encampments. However, homeless rights advocates advise that the police force is fundamentally unsuited for meeting the safety, resource and housing access needs of unsheltered residents.

People living in Columbus Circle react to Park Service plans to close their encampment

National Park Services will work in collaboration with D.C. Health and Human Services to shut down two encampments on federal property, ending a pandemic policy that prevented federal authorities from removing encampments on federal land.

The encampment

Robert Warren reflects about the removal of encampment grounds.

DC evicts more than 30 homeless residents from park at New Jersey and O NW, surrounds the site in fences

The second encampment closure occurred on Dec. 2 at the New Jersey and O Street park. Thirteen people obtained leases, while 15 others are engaged with outreach services. However, people fluctuate in and out of the park, some are given little time to connect with services.

Aldo Richardson, homeless veteran, moves into PEP-V hotel with hope for permanent supportive housing

The CARE pilot program closes four of the largest encampments in D.C. The program offers housing for one year to those who made the by-name list. Those not on the list were forced to relocate. Aldo Richardson was one of the many who needed to relocate to New Jersey and O Street park encampment in hopes of qualifying for housing.

Homeless Truxton Circle residents brace for early December eviction amid pleas to halt encampment clearings

Meet some of the people living at Allen Park in Truxton Circle who will either be displaced by the upcoming Dec. 2 clearing or placed into housing accommodations through the city’s new encampment pilot program.

As DC lapses on porta pottie contract, public restroom pilot programs inch forward

A public restroom pilot program plans to address the longstanding problem of access to public restrooms. An anticipated report by the work group consisting of nine government agencies is planned to release a report sometime this month.

NPS closes second park on Capitol Hill, once again pushing out encampment residents

The National Park Service closed a second triangle park near Union Station on Oct. 15. Ten people who had been living in the park at Massachusetts Avenue and 3rd Street NE had only 14 days to find a new place to live.

Meet the neighborhood commissioners of Foggy Bottom who advocate for people experiencing homelessness

Meet Yannik Omictin and Evelyn Hudson, two ANC commissioners in Foggy Bottom, who have used their elected office to advocate for the rights of their constituents experiencing homelessness.

DC government removes tents, injures one resident, houses others, and deploys concrete barriers to enforce a ‘pedestrian passageway’

An encampment eviction was suspended for less than a day after a District worker used a small front loader to push over a tent with an individual still inside. District officials maintain the worker didn’t know someone was inside, but it raises the question: How could this happen in the first place?

DC is moving some encampment residents into housing. What about those not “on the list?”

D.C. officials are moving some residents into housing from three large encampments, but others may be kicked out. Where will they go?

DC will shut down long-standing NoMa encampments as part of pilot program

Like K Street in January 2020, the underpasses at L Street and M Street NE will be designated as “pedestrian passageways.” Unlike the K Street eviction, D.C. government says it will expedite housing as part of removing people and their belongings.

Ward 2 residents fight attempt to displace a homeless encampment near Safeway

After wooden planters were illegally placed in front of a Ward 2 Safeway following a scheduled encampment clean-up, advocates and housed residents fought back against this attempt to keep the unhoused residents from moving back.

Encampment cleanup at 7th and P St NW bus shelter sparks debate over public space

Two full encampment cleanups at the 7th and P St NW bus shelter and in a neighboring empty lot add to the debate about D.C.’s public space.

Unhoused residents unite with local ANCs to prevent eviction

U.S. Park Police is planning to “move on” tent communities in Burke and Samuel Gompers Memorial Park after neighbors complained to them, accusing the unhoused of several federal code violations.