New Executive Order Will Not End Homelessness in D.C.
On March 28, 2025 the White House, via executive order, pledged to make the “District of Columbia Beautiful” and to help rectify “‘the filth and the decay’ that marred the nation’s capital in [President Trump’s] absence.”
The Order took direct aim at unhoused populations on federal land in the District, empowering the Secretary of the Interior to “issue a directive to the National Park Service requiring prompt removal and cleanup of all homeless or vagrant encampments . . . to the maximum extent permitted by law.”
The Order came after President Trump posted on Truth Social in early March that District Mayor Muriel Bowser, “must clean up all of the unsightly homeless encampments in the City [sic], specifically including the ones outside of the State Department, and near the White House.” Mayor Bowser responded to pressure from the White House, promptly sending the Metro Police Department to clear encampment sites with little notice to residents.
In doing so, Mayor Bowser and the District seemed to defy local policies regarding notice on “encampment cleanup.” While the District’s official Encampment Protocol calls for giving at least seven days’ notice before an encampment is cleared, one resident who was removed by District officials in response to pressure from the White House reported to the Washington Post that she was given “less than 24 hours to get out.”
The Protocol explicitly contemplates a workaround of District policies that attempt to reduce the harms associated with encampment sweeps, containing a provision authorizing “Immediate Cleanups.” The “Immediate Cleanups” provision allows for cleanups to be conducted “without providing Notice, outreach, or storage options” if “the site poses an emergency, security risk, health risk, or safety risk.” This vague exception, and the District’s eagerness to, without explanation, deem any encampment site a “security risk, health risk, or safety risk,” renders the Protocol meaningless. Not only does this curtail the rights of unhoused people, but it also threatens their security, health, and safety --- risks with which neither the White House nor the District seems concerned.
The White House claims it issued the Executive Order to “make the District of Columbia safe, beautiful, and prosperous.” The District claims to focus “on making homelessness rare, brief and non-recurring.” While it’s safe to say that most people would buy into these goals, the reality is that the means these entities are using to achieve these goals are ineffective methods of reducing homelessness. If homelessness is an open wound, encampment sweeps aren’t even band-aids, they’re leeches. Sweeps not only harm those displaced, but exacerbate homelessness, and waste taxpayer dollars.
A 2023 study published in ScienceDirect shows that encampment sweeps often result in the loss of displaced individuals’ personal property. They also disrupt the routines and communities of displaced individuals and leave them feeling surveilled while doing little to nothing to connect them to stable and affordable housing. Furthermore, sweeps often involve the use of law enforcement. While the Supreme Court has affirmed that it is not cruel and unusual to arrest unhoused individuals residing on public property, the use of law enforcement while clearing an encampment is not ideal. Sweeps are often a distressing time for those whom they affect, and the presence of law enforcement increases the likelihood of conflict and violence. This leads to the unofficial criminalization of impoverished people and those most in need of support, not punishment. National Health Care for the Homeless Counsel highlights the risks of employing law enforcement for these means well:
“Sweeps also put police (often armed) directly into conflict with encampment residents, who are understandably upset and defending their personal property. This dynamic dramatically increases the likelihood of incarceration and violence.”
What’s more, the means don’t justify the ends. Studies have repeatedly concluded that forcible displacement temporarily removes individuals but does not result in those displaced obtaining housing. This ineffective and harmful practice isn’t cheap. A 2019 study of the costs of encampment responses in the cities of Chicago, Houston, San Jose, and Tacoma found that the cities spent a combined 6 million dollars on encampment clearances in a single year.
Unsurprisingly, evidence-based solutions to homelessness are far more complex than sweeps and require continued engagement. They also acknowledge the humanity and dignity of unhoused people, and aim to find long-term solutions to homelessness that sustainably integrate unhoused people into communities and connect them to resources they need to survive and succeed. Perhaps that is why many municipalities, and the federal government, continue to sweep encampments. They don’t actually want to achieve those goals; they want a quick way to make our unhoused neighbors invisible. What the White House fundamentally misunderstands is that the District can only be “safe, beautiful, and prosperous” when all people who call D.C. home are treated equally and with dignity. Rising homelessness in our city does need to be addressed, but the way to do it is not by displacing and criminalizing people who are unhoused. It is by funding housing programs, expanding social services, and supporting organizations committed to evidence-based practices that meaningfully consider the needs and circumstances of unhoused communities. To support meaningful, evidenced-based work to end homelessness in D.C., we encourage you to learn more about our partner organizations
Encampment sweeps are a form of criminalizing poverty, and Equal Justice Under Law stands firmly against the criminalization of poverty in all of its forms. To learn more about our cases and work, visit our website.