WASHINGTON (7News) — The District is carrying out a homeless “encampment engagement” on Thursday near the Interstate 66 ramp in Foggy Bottom, the mayor’s office confirmed to 7News.
RELATED | Shelters or jail: Local leaders concerned for DC’s homeless amid Trump’s federal crackdown
Officials said the city will continue offering services and shelter to unhoused residents, adding that the same resources were made available in the days leading up to the engagement.
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The move comes after President Donald Trump announced a crackdown on crime and homelessness in the nation’s capital through a recent executive order.
Trump said the effort is about making the city “safe and beautiful,” even suggesting people could be relocated far outside the capital.
“Moving people from place to place, far from the outreach workers that they’ve been working with, far from the meal programs they attend, will just interrupt services and really further traumatize people. And so our outreach team at Miriam’s Kitchen continues to go out, they were out last night into the evening hours, and they were out this morning including right as we speak making sure people have what they need, the information, connection to resources or shelter if that’s what they choose,” Kiersten Quinsland, Chief Program Officer at Miriam’s Kitchen, said. “We are providing mobile phones to folks.”
The most recent city numbers show the homeless count at just over 5,000 adults and children.
Montgomery County, Maryland, leaders said they’re bracing for a possible influx of homeless residents as the Trump administration clears encampments in the nation’s capital.
The mayor’s office did not specify how many people live in the encampment or how long the process will take.
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