14

14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS INSP OCTOBER 17, 2025 Many still street homeless in DC following federal and local encampment closures ANNEMARIE CUCCIA, MADI KOESLER, FRANZISKA WILD, MACKENZIE KONJOYAN AND KATHERINE WILKISON Street Sense Media Three weeks into the U.S. federal government’s crackdown on visible homelessness and crime in DC, an impromptu count of people experiencing homelessness found that hundreds of people are still living outside in the District. Combined local and federal efforts claimed to have closed at least 50 encampments in August, according to the White House, although Street Sense has only confirmed 24 closures since the surge began on August 11. The White House has not provided a list of closed encampments responded to questions about why it could not provide such a list. But even as President Donald Trump claimed victory for his efforts, a census of people sleeping outside conducted by the DC Department of Human Services (DHS) suggests that unsheltered homelessness in the city did not meaningfully decrease due to the encampment closures, which advocates argue do more to move people around than to move them into housing. The federal crackdown decreased the number of visible encampments in the District. The count found 54 tents across the city, compared to 107 at the end of July. The human impact has also been clear. People living both at encampments closed by law enforcement and the city’s encampment team have scattered, often losing possessions and community in the process. Some rough sleepers (people who sleep outside but not in a tent) have made it a point to avoid law enforcement. But it is harder to tell if the crackdown has impacted the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness overall. While about 80 new people went into shelter in August, according to the city, at least 764 were still sleeping outside each night, according to the census. This is just 30 people fewer than the annual Point-in-Time (PIT) Count found were sleeping outside in January, although the city cautions against directly comparing the two numbers due to differing methodologies. These numbers do not include people who are homeless but sleeping in shelters; the January PIT Count recorded a total of over 5,100 people experiencing homelessness in the District. Meanwhile, the city has scheduled including at encampseveral encampment closures through September, ments that have not been closed recently. The city has closed at least 16 encampments in the last two weeks. While this is an uptick in local encampment closures compared to the summer, it is not unprecedented, as the city averaged three to four encampment closures a week as recently as this spring. “We have a relatively small encampment problem in DC,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a August 27 update on the federal crackdown. “However, it is highly visible.” The new state of homelessness in DC or Shelters, across state lines, friends’ couches — where have people gone since Trump threatened the widespread removal of people experiencing homelessness in the district? Surveys by Street Sense confirmed that while some people impacted by encampment closures are considering shelter, most stayed outside, either in new spots or without tents. A few crossed state lines into Virginia or Maryland. With the help of mutual aid groups, some residents in special circumstances temporarily moved into hotel rooms. But the question of where people are going is still heavy on the shoulders of DC’s unhoused population and outreach workers. “There has been a significant disruption in the lives of people who live unsheltered,” Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Wayne Turnage said ahead of the unsheltered count. When encampments are closed, people move, and if they do not have reliable phone service or lose their phone in the closure, they can lose touch with outreach workers. Andy Wassenich, director of policy at local outreach and housing nonprofit Miriam’s Kitchen, said that his team has lost contact with at least 25 people since the takeover began. Christine Hong, chief of services to end and prevent homelessness at the Department of Human Services in Montgomery County, Maryland, said that the county has been monitoring closely the data that it receives from street outreach and emergency shelters since the White House announced the federal surge. So far, the county has not seen a significant influx of new people, Hong said. But anecdotally, outreach workers and county residents are seeing “new faces,” including Surveys by Street Sense confirmed that while some people impacted by encampment closures are considering shelter, most stayed outside, either in new spots or without tents. Photo credit: Madi Koesler people who will not share their names or where they are from, which could indicate that they have recently moved from the District. “Whenever you clear encampments and the residents do not accept the offer of shelter that you make, they will tend to scatter, so that creates difficulty for our outreach team to relocate and continue the offer of homeless services,” Turnage said, explaining that the homeless census was conducted to ensure that the city could better provide outreach services to people experiencing homelessness. The census somewhat mirrored the annual PIT Count, conducted every January, and attempted to determine where people were sleeping outside the night of August 28, following the mass clearings. During the census, DHS volunteers and outreach providers walked every block of the city between roughly 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. to count people whom they assumed to be experiencing homelessness. Counters did not individually survey people, meaning there is no confirmation that everyone counted is experiencing homelessness. Instead, volunteers cross-referenced recent data from outreach workers about where people often slept. Because of the difference in methodology, the city cautioned against comparing this census to PIT Count data, although it is the most recent public data on unsheltered homelessness in the city. The Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness’ PIT Count data reported 798 people sleeping outside in 2025, 900 in 2024, and 825 in 2023, just slightly above the 764 people found in August. The PIT itself is largely understood to be an undercount. The census was the city’s idea, according to Turnage, and as of the night of the count, there had been no discussion of sharing results with the federal government. As winter approaches, the city plans to use data from this count to increase shelter beds, officials said. The city opened 100 new low-barrier shelter beds in early August. DC is working actively to increase homelessness services capacity by at least 300 more beds, Bowser announced in a press conference the same week of the census. This includes 190 beds at the new noncongregate facility on E Street set to open in September. “We don’t expect that we’re going to have homeless encampments, and we are going to work to make sure people can come into shelter,” Bowser said at the conference on August 27, ahead of the count. More beds might sound like an ideal solution to move people inside, but many unsheltered people in DC prefer their encampments to the city’s shelters. Encampment residents feel that they have more privacy and autonomy when living outside or in tents than in shelters. Many shelters in the District have curfews, bag limits, and security checks. They also prohibit pets and see STREETS next page 

15 Publizr Home