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.”
At least 75 homeless encampments have been removed between March and August 13 as part of an earlier executive order signed by President Trump, per a Department of the Interior (DOI) spokesperson. Of all the parks, only one homeless encampment remained on NPS units in the DC area parks.
The DOI spokesperson also told 7News that they will implement a “no-tolerance policy” for homeless camps on federal lands, no longer giving three notices and a 48-hour warning before encampments are removed.
Officials said there are no known homeless encampments on National Park Service lands within National Capital Parks East, National Mall and Memorial Parks, Chesapeake and Ohio National Historical Park, Rock Creek Park, or near the White House.
The most recent city numbers show the homeless count at just over 5,000 adults and children.
As of August 6, at least 60-80 pieces of graffiti have also been removed, a DOI spokesperson said.
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 for D.C. did not specify how many people live in the encampment or how long the process will take.
A spokesperson for the D.C. Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Office provided the following statement to 7News regarding encampment removals Thursday night.
The DC Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Office and the Department of Human Services are tracking possible federal enforcement efforts planned for tonight. For more information on these actions, you will need to reach out to the relevant federal agencies. The District has worked proactively with homeless residents ahead of these actions to provide services and offers of shelter. Impacted residents who seek shelter will not be turned away. The District is able to expand capacity as needed. DC will support the engagements with wraparound services and trash pickup, but the planned engagements are otherwise the purview of the federal agencies.
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