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This article originally ran in Street Sense Media and is reprinted here with permission.

In a move that sent shock waves through city residents, particularly service providers and those experiencing homelessness, President Donald Trump federalized D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department and deployed the National Guard to D.C. on Aug. 11.

In his announcement, Trump, who has frequently linked crime and homelessness, framed unsheltered homelessness and encampments as part of the city’s alleged crime problem. He directed law enforcement to remove tents and threatened to remove people experiencing homelessness from the city.

Over the following days, outreach workers scrambled to help people find safe places to sleep, putting them up in hotels or moving them into shelters, while fear, uncertainty, and frustration grew.

“You’re breaking people’s lives, and dreams, and their livelihoods. You’re messing people’s livelihoods up,” Temitope Ibijemilusi, who often sleeps downtown, said after law enforcement made him move his belongings. “You’re causing more problems, causing more anxiety.”

In total, Street Sense has confirmed that at least 20 people have been displaced from eight encampments through federally driven closures. Law enforcement told many more people to move from public spaces where people experiencing homelessness often congregate. Closures have largely been led by law enforcement officers rather than the city’s normal outreach teams.

Though White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said 48 encampments have been closed since Aug. 11, Street Sense has not been able to confirm closures at more than eight unique sites across the District. The White House did not provide a list of closed sites or sites it intends to close.

Data from the city, meanwhile, suggests the number of people living in encampments did not meaningfully decrease over the past two weeks.

Meanwhile, dozens of people living outside reported harassment, fear, or uncertainty stemming from federal actions and rhetoric. Though the Trump administration threatened the criminalization of camping, panhandling, or sleeping outside, publicly available local arrest data and data provided by the White House do not yet show any arrests with those charges.

In response to the crackdown, the city opened more than 100 additional shelter beds, according to the D.C. Department of Human Services, and is prepared to open more if needed. A second noncongregate shelter will open in the next few months, providing additional beds, and the city will put more money toward its homelessness diversion program.

But not everyone feels safe going into shelters—Kevin, who sleeps outside the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library downtown, said he finds the facilities overcrowded, and he worries about getting sick. So instead, he sleeps outside. These days, he feels particularly vulnerable to law enforcement.

“We already know what’s going on,” Kevin told Street Sense on Aug. 19, sitting outside MLK as the sun set. “I don’t know when, sooner or later, but they gonna come. They gonna come.”

The Flashpoint

On the night of Aug. 14, faced with FBI agents and a swarm of press, Meghann Abraham decided she was going to stand in front of her tent, cross her arms, and face the onslaught. She knew she wasn’t doing anything wrong—no matter what the president of the United States might say.

“Being homeless is not a crime,” she told Street Sense a few hours before. “We’re not drug addicts. We’re not criminals. We don’t have guns or nothing. We’re just trying to live.”
Abraham, who’s 34 years old, recently earned an associate’s degree from the College of Southern Maryland in the applied science of Homeland Security. She’d like to work for FEMA someday, helping people in crisis. After moving from the MLK Library, she lived with her boyfriend in a tent on the edge of Washington Circle for the past couple of months.

On Aug. 14, whispers began that federal agents would start closing D.C.’s encampments. Late that afternoon, the city placed stickers on several tents in Washington Circle, notifying residents the encampment would be closed four days later, on Aug. 18. At the time, outreach workers and local officials said they did not know what locations federal agents would be targeting. They learned the plans only shortly before the FBI arrived.

Just after 9 p.m., at least 12 FBI agents arrived at Washington Circle, intending to remove several tents, including Abraham’s.

When agents approached Abraham, she showed them the sticker from the city. With the support of legal advocates, she argued she had the right to stay until Aug. 18. Agents eventually left, and though they returned once more, they were seemingly deterred by the sticker. That night, they closed neither Abraham’s encampment nor the four nearby ones they told city officials they’d be visiting.

But the FBI agents’ departure that night was a brief reprieve. Local law enforcement returned to Abraham’s encampment, as well as several others, the next morning, closing them on the orders of the federal government.

Officers were first spotted near the city’s Downtown Day Services Center, where many people experiencing homelessness go to get meals, showers, IDs, and other assistance. Residents and outreach workers said officers threw away some of the belongings of people in the area. Staff for nearby programs tried to keep people inside to make sure they stayed safe, accompanying clients outside to keep watch on them during their smoke breaks.

Ibijemilusi just recently began living outside the center, after the person he had been staying with passed away. He told Street Sense that law enforcement told him to break down his tent and discarded some other people’s possessions.

“A lot of people lost their things today,” Ibijemilusi said.

MPD then went to the tents near Washington Circle........

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