Editor’s Note: This is an installment of a biweekly column “Encampment Updates.” In each edition, a Street Sense journalist will write about past and upcoming encampment clearings and closures in D.C. The government’s policies and schedule can be found at: dmhhs.dc.gov/page/encampments.
D.C.’s Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services (DMHHS) conducted what the city terms a “full clean-up” and a “trash removal” at two encampments in Foggy Bottom in early July.
A third “full clean-up” at an encampment on Maryland Avenue near the Arboretum was scheduled for July 11, but later canceled. At this site, the Department of Public Works (DPW) conducted an emergency engagement removing “all bulk trash and hazardous items that were outside of the vehicles on public space” ahead of the scheduled clean-up, removing the need for another engagement, according to a DMHHS spokesperson.
DMHHS also conducted an “immediate disposition,” when the city provides residents between 24 hours and six days notice before closing an encampment, at Alaska Avenue and 16th Street on July 15.
During the first “full clean-up”, along E Street Expressway on July 2, residents had to move all of their belongings for the duration of the clean-up but were allowed to return once it was finished. DMHHS conducted the clean-up to “remove all identified abandoned tents and structures, bulk trash items and biohazards,” according to a DMHHS spokesperson.
A DMHHS spokesperson also noted a cut crew from DPW was initially scheduled to do grounds maintenance, but DPW “requested to reschedule their maintenance efforts for a later date” and “these efforts will be rescheduled accordingly with appropriate notice provided to the residents” according to the spokesperson.
One resident, who requested to stay anonymous to protect his privacy while living outside, was frustrated he had to move his belongings, including a tent, multiple bags, and a mattress, across the expressway exit ramp. The resident and three outreach workers spent nearly three hours moving his stuff back and forth across the ramp before and after the clearing.
Residents still had to move their belongings, even without the cut crew, because the clearing involved heavy machinery, according to DMHHS. DMHHS used a compact track loader, which resembles a bulldozer, to remove a set of abandoned tents and other items from the encampment, including a trash bin and pile of trash bags.“Residents were requested to temporarily relocate in a safe manner until the completion of the engagement,” according to the DMHHS spokesperson.
“I think it’s all bullshit,” the resident said. “The city — they follow homeless people around to make sure they’re not nuisances. Some people are creating a nuisance, but some people who have their stuff in public are not.”
Three other encampment residents moved their belongings across the exit ramp before the clean-up started, according to outreach workers from Miriam’s Kitchen. Street Sense was not able to reach these residents for comment.
The resident who spoke with Street Sense felt there should be greater protections for people living in encampments.
“I think there should be more stringent rights for homeless people,” he said.
Outreach workers from Miriam’s Kitchen echoed these concerns and explained they felt the engagement could have been conducted without making residents relocate, especially since the DPW cut crew canceled their maintenance.
A week later, on July 9, a second encampment engagement at Whitehurst Hill was downgraded from a “full clean-up” to a “bulk trash removal.” At this engagement, DMHHS removed trash and a DPW crew mowed the grass.
According to a DMHHS spokesperson, the “full clean-up” was downgraded because “residents agreed to clean their areas and remove their items to the appropriate pickup spot” which allowed DPW to cut the grass in the area.
Five days before — on July Fourth — a team of three outreach workers from Miriam’s Kitchen, including Abigail Morris, took a push lawn mower and a pair of handheld clippers out to Whitehurst Hill at 7 a.m. to mow the grass and cut weeds around resident’s tents.
“We were doing anything we could think of to keep our clients from having to move literally everything,” Morris said. Street Sense could not confirm if the maintenance undertaken by Miriam’s Kitchen impacted the decision to downgrade the clean-up.
Whitehurst Hill hosts a larger encampment with 12 tents and over a dozen people staying there. At least two residents are over 60 and a few are in their late 50s — meaning temporarily relocating everyone could be a challenging and traumatic process that would also strain outreach workers.
“We do not have the manpower, it took nearly 20 staff hours to move three people at E Street,” Morris said. “And a lot of the clients at Whitehurst Hill have more trauma from past encampment clearings. It’s a much higher stress environment.”
Many of the residents at Whitehurst Hill were displaced in the recent Foggy Bottom closures, and many were evicted from McPherson Square before that.
Morris and two other staff mowed the grass and clipped weeds until around 1 p.m. on July Fourth. Afterwards, they enjoyed pizza and popsicles with the encampment residents. Residents helped assemble their trash, whack weeds, and one — who grew up on a farm — helped adjust the push lawn mower to the correct setting for the waist-high grass. Luis, who asked to only be identified by his first name to protect his privacy while living outside, told Street Sense he was surprised but glad to see Miriam’s Kitchen out at the encampment on the Fourth of July. He expressed how difficult it would have been to move, especially with the heat — the temperature was already 88 degrees at 9 a.m. on the day of the clearing.
As the DPW lawn mower buzzed in the background that day, Luis joked: “Just leave the weed whacker here, we could do it ourselves.”
Although moving a tent might seem easy, for many people, it isn’t as simple as packing up camp.
“What a lot of people maybe don’t realize is that these people’s tents are their homes. Most of these people’s tents have bed frames, chairs, large mattresses, dressers. This is where people live,” Morris said. “People have a lot of belongings and the pure logistics of moving is hard. It’s also emotionally taxing.”
Morris also stressed — with frustration in their voice — that they and the other outreach workers could have spent those six hours on July Fourth differently. For example, they could have handed out cold water on a day when many other services were closed, but temperatures remained dangerously high.
“Our job isn’t to mow grass, but our job is to advocate for our clients, and if mowing the grass is what it’s going to take, then we’ll mow grass,” Morris said.
Upcoming encampment engagements include: July 23 at 10 a.m. at 2nd and D Streets NW, July 25 at 10 a.m. at 228 7th St. SE, and July 30 at 10 a.m. at 21st and E Streets NW.
