Following months of speculation and a flurry of recent executive orders, housed and unhoused Washingtonians alike are left wondering what the future of their city looks like under the Trump administration.
On March 28, President Donald Trump signed an executive order threatening D.C. home rule and targeting residents experiencing homelessness. The order calls for the creation of the “D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force,” which, as of the time of publication, will not include any members of the local government, direct service providers, or community representatives. For many Washingtonians, this is just the latest example of federal overreach and interference without true representation.
The task force is charged with increasing police presence in the District, “maximizing” immigration enforcement, enforcing penalties for “quality of life crimes,” strengthening pretrial detention, and cracking down on crime on public transportation. Following the announcement, several D.C. politicians fired back at Trump and his task force, which will include representatives from 10 federal agencies.
“President Trump’s thoroughly anti-home rule EO [executive order] is insulting to the 700,000 D.C. residents who live in close proximity to a federal government, which continues to deny them the same rights afforded to other Americans,” D.C. Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton wrote in a statement.
The order also calls on the National Park Service (NPS) to promptly remove and clean up “homeless or vagrant encampments” to the “maximum extent permitted by law.” It is unclear if this order will lead to a policy change, as NPS already closes at least some encampments on federal land in D.C.
NPS has long-standing regulations against unauthorized camping and has cleared several encampments in recent years, including a 70-person encampment in McPherson Square in 2023. The agency had planned to close all encampments on federal land in D.C. by the end of 2023 but began reinforcement of the camping ban in mid-2024.
“The National Park Service continues to prioritize clean, safe, and welcoming public spaces across all NPS parks throughout the nation’s capital,” National Capital Region spokesperson Jasmine Shanti said in a statement to Street Sense. “We remain committed to working with local and federal partners to ensure these spaces are safe, accessible, and welcoming for all.”
Shanti did not respond to specific questions regarding the potential impact of the order on unhoused residents. At the same time, advocates worry the order will lead to increased encampment closures, or harsher penalties for those found camping, which is an arrestable offense.
“This executive order, like many executive orders, won’t actually help anybody. It’ll just push people further into poverty and, in this case, keep people homeless longer,” Jesse Rabinowitz, the campaign and communications director for the National Homeless Law Center, said. “If the president was really committed to solving homelessness, he would fund housing and support, not prioritize these traumatic and wasteful evictions.”
While the order specifically targets encampments on federal land, the president has publicly instructed D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to remove encampments from District land as well. In a post on Truth Social about the executive order, he wrote, “I will work with the Mayor on this and, if it does not happen, will have no choice but to do it myself.”
This is not the first time Trump has targeted homeless encampments in the District. In March, he posted on Truth Social demanding Bowser clear an encampment near the State Department building. The city shut down the encampment two days later with the help of more than 25 police officers.
In a statement, a representative for the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services (DMHHS), which oversees the city’s encampments team, said the order does not mean a change in policy for encampments on District land.
“Our outreach and engagement efforts will not change. We will continue to encourage residents to move from outdoor conditions into safer shelter and housing resources,” a DMHHS spokesperson wrote in an email to Street Sense. As of April 7, 13 DMHHS encampment closures are scheduled for April and May. DMHHS estimates about 200 people are currently living in encampments in D.C.
Rabinowitz believes policies calling for encampment closures are, in part, driven by misconceptions about people experiencing homelessness.
“The biggest narrative driving homeless laws is that homelessness is a choice, and that if we make homelessness harder or if we are more cruel to homeless folks, then they would not be homeless. But nobody is experiencing homelessness by choice,” Rabinowitz said. “They are forced into homelessness by a country that doesn’t have enough housing that people can afford and that doesn’t have a social safety net.”
Homeless service providers and advocates have long spoken out against encampment clearings, calling them destabilizing and ineffective.
Ami Angell, executive director of the h3 Project, has been doing street outreach in D.C. for more than five years. For her, simply removing encampments is short-sighted.
“Sure, it provides that temporary Band-Aid. Oh, look, now we actually followed through. This place is clear,” Angell said. “Imagine having to pack up your house and have to move everything. You’re going to lose things in the process, it’s very inconvenient.”
For service providers like Angell, closing encampments also means losing connections with clients. This may mean clients lose access to their caseworkers, important documents, or the people who were helping them apply for housing.
“Suggesting that we can just get rid of homelessness severely undermines the motivation and the intellect of those experiencing homelessness. Those that are on the streets, just because they may be down on their luck, that doesn’t mean that they lack resilience,” Angell said. “Instead of trying to cover up something, let’s do something that’s going to be helpful.”
Angell estimates she and her team have a current caseload of about 200 people who are experiencing homelessness or are housing insecure, and they provide resources like clothing to dozens more in the Union Station area.
Beyond removing people experiencing homelessness from national land, the order calls for increased police presence and enforcement of “quality of life” laws, which could have a disproportionate impact on low-income Washingtonians. A statement from the ACLU said the approach is ineffective and “criminalizes behaviors that are symptoms of poverty and lack of opportunity.”
Crime rates in the District have fluctuated in recent years, but are largely going down. Overall crime declined by nearly 15% from 2023 to 2024. Over the same period, homicides decreased by nearly one-third, sex abuse by 25%, and robberies by 39%. From 2021 to 2024, violent crime declined by more than 15%, according to data provided by the Metropolitan Police Department.
The order is part of a larger effort by the president to “beautify” the District, which Trump has previously described as “horribly run” and “marred by filth and decay.”
After decades in the District, Daniel del Pielago, the housing director for Empower DC, says he sees a different side to the city than the president, who has called D.C. “a nightmare of murder and crime.”
“I am not naive enough to say that I have not witnessed crime, but I also witnessed the beautiful city that is the District,” del Pielago said. “I see communities that help each other. I see food distribution, people taking care of one another in the ways that they can. So I think that that is far from the truth, and just another way that this new administration throws around their weight and controls cities that are primarily Black and have Black leadership.”
Del Pielago is well aware of the severity of the challenges facing the District but says more policing, incarceration, and encampment closures are not the best path forward.
“We need to make sure that we continue to invest in this city, which is very rich. It has very rich people living in it, and we find ways to support everyone that lives here,” del Pielago said.
After spending decades abroad, Angell has chosen to build a life in the District and serve its residents. For her, it is clear Trump is out of touch with most Washingtonians.
“It’s not like [Trump] goes out walking by himself anywhere to really experience D.C. He has a very narrow view,” Angell said. “Let’s not just ask all the folks in suits next to us. Why don’t we go to the streets, and why don’t we really find out what folks think of D.C.?”
Angell has spent years asking people experiencing homelessness that question: If given the choice, would they choose to leave D.C.?
“The vast majority, I’d probably say a good 88 or so percent, say that they want to stay here because this is their home, and this is where they feel connected,” Angell said. “They would not say this if it was the mecca of murder and crime.”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated from the print version to include NPS comment received after publication.
