WASHINGTON — Each night time, Abdullah Ibrahim retreats from the streets right into a wooded stretch alongside the Potomac River.
As night time falls and temperatures drop, he erects a tent and builds a hearth beneath a cover of pine, hemlock, and cedar bushes.
He evades authorities by rotating use of three tents of various colours at three campsites. As day breaks, he dismantles his shelter, rolls up his belongings, and hides them for the subsequent night time. “They don’t see you if you’re in the woods,” the 32-year-old stated. “But make sure it’s broken down by morning or they’ll find you.”
In the course of the day, he wanders, stopping at a public library to heat up or a soup kitchen to eat. What’s essential is to not draw consideration to himself for being homeless.
“Police want us out of the way,” he stated, wearing a grey jacket and carrying none of his possessions. “Out of sight, out of mind.”
Ibrahim has been deliberate about mixing in since August, when President Donald Trump positioned the district’s police underneath federal management and ordered Nationwide Guard troopers to patrol its streets. The president additionally ordered homeless folks to go away instantly. “There will be no ‘MR. NICE GUY,’” he posted.
The Trump administration says encampment sweeps have decreased the visibility of homelessness, thereby enhancing town. “There is no disputing that Washington, DC is a safer, cleaner, and more beautiful city thanks to President Trump’s historic actions to restore the nation’s capital,” White Home spokesperson Taylor Rogers stated.
Whereas there might seem like fewer homeless folks within the nation’s capital now, they haven’t disappeared.
In interviews, homeless folks stated they’re in a relentless shuffle, hiding in plain sight. In the course of the day, they keep on the transfer, grabbing meals at soup kitchens and resting once in a while in public libraries, on park benches, or at bus stops. At night time, many unsheltered folks mattress down in enterprise doorways, on park sidewalks, and on church stoops. Some trip the bus all night time, whereas just a few shelter in emergency rooms. Others discover respite within the woods or flee to suburbs in Virginia or Maryland.
There are about 5,100 homeless folks in Washington, D.C., together with in short-term shelters, in keeping with an early-2025 homelessness tally. After Trump ordered the crackdown on public homelessness, folks dwelling in makeshift communities scattered and are actually dwelling within the shadows. Metropolis officers estimated in August that practically 700 homeless folks had been dwelling outdoor with out tents or different shelter.
As winter attracts close to, they’re uncovered to the weather and develop sicker as power illnesses resembling diabetes and coronary heart illness go untreated. Avenue medication suppliers say that, for the reason that Nationwide Guard was deployed, they’ve confronted huge issue discovering sufferers. Many caught up in sweeps have had their lifesaving drugs thrown away, and they’re extra more likely to miss medical appointments as a result of they’re consistently on the transfer. Avenue medication suppliers say they will’t discover their sufferers to ship remedy or transport them to medical appointments. The fixed chaos can suck sufferers with psychological sickness and substance use deeper into drug and alcohol habit, elevating the chance of overdose.
Caseworkers report related disruptions, saying as shoppers get misplaced, they break connections important for acquiring housing paperwork, significantly IDs and Social Safety playing cards.
District officers and well being suppliers say this cascade will make homelessness worse, threatening public well being and public security and racking up huge prices for the well being care system.
“It was already hard locating people, but the federal presence just made it worse,” stated Tobie Smith, a road medication physician and the chief director of Avenue Well being D.C.
The Homeless Shuffle
Chris Jones was born and raised in Washington, D.C., however now could be homeless, having been pushed out of his tent close to the White Home within the preliminary days of the federal homelessness crackdown. He stated two of his tents had been taken throughout sweeps. Now, sleeping on a sidewalk outdoors a church, he doesn’t hassle making an attempt to get one other one. “Why? What’s the point? It’ll just get thrown away again.”
Jones, 57, has a extreme knee damage that forestalls him from strolling some days and stated he was scheduled for a knee alternative in December. He stated it’s essential to remain the place he’s — he depends on a close-by drugstore to refill his drugs for bipolar dysfunction, diabetes, and hypertension. When he’s hungry, he goes to a soup kitchen for a meal or tries to get a cheeseburger and a soda from a fast-food joint throughout the road.
It’s essential for him to remain outdoors the church, he stated, so his case supervisor can discover him when a everlasting housing slot opens up. If it will get too chilly, he stated, he’ll cross the road and sleep within the doorway of a enterprise, which may present a bit extra shelter. He needs to get indoors, however for now, he waits.
Since taking management of Washington’s police pressure, the Trump administration has ratcheted up stress on cities and counties throughout the nation to clear homeless encampments underneath risk of arrest, quotation, or detention. It has ordered or threatened related Nationwide Guard deployments in Los Angeles; Portland, Oregon; and different cities with massive homeless populations.
Rogers, the White Home spokesperson, stated the president is sustaining Nationwide Guard and federal regulation enforcement presence within the nation’s capital “to ensure the long-term success of the federal operation.” Since March, metropolis and federal officers have eliminated greater than 130 homeless encampments, she stated, although some native homelessness consultants say that quantity may very well be inflated.
The Supreme Courtroom final 12 months made it simpler for elected officers and regulation enforcement to nice or arrest homeless folks for dwelling outdoors. Then, in July of this 12 months, the president issued an government order calling for a nationwide crackdown on city tenting, together with an enormous elimination of individuals dwelling outdoor and compelled psychological well being or substance use therapy.
Trump can be spearheading an overhaul of homelessness coverage, transferring to slash funding for everlasting housing and providers for homeless folks. The transfer would restrict the usage of a long-standing federal coverage generally known as “Housing First” that gives housing with out mandating psychological well being or habit therapy. The Nationwide Alliance to Finish Homelessness warns the transfer dangers displacing at the very least 170,000 folks in everlasting supportive housing. The Division of Housing and City Growth paused the plan on Dec. 8 to make revisions, which it “intends” to do, federal housing officers stated.
Metropolis officers say they’re complying with the Trump administration’s forceful marketing campaign in opposition to homeless folks sheltering outdoors. Pressured by the White Home, native officers stated they’ve gotten extra aggressive in breaking apart camps. Advocates for homeless folks say a number of the sweeps have been carried out at night time and others with little or no discover to maneuver. Metropolis leaders imagine they may very well be carried out extra compassionately by providing providers and shelter.
“We’ve pivoted from the notion of allowing encampments if they didn’t violate public health or safety to a position of, ‘We don’t want you in the streets,’” stated Wayne Turnage, deputy mayor for District of Columbia Well being and Human Companies, who oversees encampment cleanups. “It’s unsafe, it’s unhealthy, and it’s dangerous.” But he acknowledges the encampment sweeps can waste metropolis sources as caseworkers and road medication suppliers scramble to seek out their shoppers and sufferers.
Advocates say the Trump administration is inciting concern and distrust between homeless folks and people working to assist them whereas losing taxpayer {dollars} used to offer care and place folks into housing. There are, nonetheless, far fewer tents and large-scale encampments seen to vacationers and residents.
“People found safety in those communities and service providers could find them. Now there are people with guns and flashing lights dislocating folks experiencing homelessness without notice and just throwing stuff away,” stated Jesse Rabinowitz, marketing campaign and communications director for the Nationwide Homelessness Regulation Middle.
District officers say some folks have accepted emergency shelter. However at the same time as town works to attach folks with providers and develop shelter capability, officers acknowledge there isn’t sufficient everlasting housing or short-term beds for everybody.
And there will likely be fewer locations for folks dwelling outdoors to go.
Town, in its fiscal 12 months 2026 finances, concentrated its homelessness funding on households, funding 336 new everlasting supportive housing vouchers. But it lower funding for short-term housing for each households and people and offered no new everlasting supportive housing vouchers for people. Meaning fewer housing slots for single adults, who make up most of these wandering the streets. Metropolis officers stated, nonetheless, that they’ve slotted 260 extra everlasting housing items for homeless people or households into their building pipeline.
Worsening Well being Care
The fallout is inundating native soup kitchens with demand, together with Miriam’s Kitchen in Foggy Backside. The native establishment offers sizzling meals, housing help, and heat blankets to folks in want.
Caseworkers say it’s turning into more and more troublesome to assist shoppers safe IDs and different paperwork wanted for housing and different social providers.
“I’m looking everywhere, but I can’t find people,” stated Cyria Knight, a caseworker at Miriam’s Kitchen. “Most of my clients went to Virginia.”
It’s unclear how a lot of the district’s homeless inhabitants has fanned out to neighboring Virginia and Maryland communities. There have been an estimated 9,700 homeless folks within the area in January, months earlier than Trump’s crackdown. 4 of six counties round Washington noticed homelessness rise from 2024, whereas it fell 9% within the district.
“I’m not seeing my patients for a month or more, and then when I do, their chronic conditions are uncontrolled. They’ve been in and out of the ER, and they’re more likely to be hospitalized,” stated Anna Graham, a road medication nurse practitioner for Unity Well being Care, a community of clinics in Washington. “It’s just setting us back.”
Graham’s staff stations its cell medical van outdoors Miriam’s Kitchen at dinnertime to higher discover sufferers.
Willie Taylor, 63, was determining the place to sleep for the night time after grabbing dinner from Miriam’s. He noticed Graham to obtain his drugs for superior lung illness, seizures, power ache, and different well being issues.
He has issue strolling and desires a wheelchair, which is sophisticated as a result of he doesn’t have a everlasting tackle. Taylor and his medical suppliers say his earlier wheelchairs have been stolen whereas he slept outdoor at night time. He makes use of a buying cart to maintain him regular, strolling round all day, till dusk.
On a chilly November night time, Graham helped Taylor work out his each day drugs and checked his vitals. The staff handed him a heat coat and hand heaters earlier than sending him again outdoors.
After strolling for about 45 minutes, he discovered a bit of park pavement the place he might construct a mattress out of tarps and sleeping baggage.
“My body can’t take this,” Taylor stated, getting ready to sleep. “There’s ice on the concrete. I’m in so much pain; it hurts so much worse when it’s cold.”
Homeless folks die youthful and price the well being care system greater than housed folks, largely as a result of circumstances go untreated on the streets, and once they do search care, many go to the ER. Amongst Medicaid enrollees, homeless folks have been estimated to incur $18,764 a 12 months in spending, in contrast with $7,561 for different enrollees.
Over on the So Others May Eat soup kitchen earlier that day, Tyree Kelley was ending his breakfast of a sausage sandwich and hard-boiled eggs. He was contemplating going right into a shelter. The streets had been turning into too harmful for somebody like him, he stated, referring to the police and Nationwide Guard presence. He was feeling the lack of an encampment neighborhood that will watch his again.
He’s been to the ER at the very least seven occasions this 12 months to get look after a damaged ankle he sustained falling off an electrical scooter. The accident brought on him to lose his job and medical insurance as a garbageman, he stated. His scenario has brought on him to sink deeper right into a despair that started three years in the past after his mom died, he stated.
Then his father and sister died this 12 months. He started to numb his ache with beer.
“You get so depressed, being out here,” stated Kelley, 42. “It gets addictive. You start to not care about even changing your clothes.”
His despair additionally led him to hunt out marijuana. Then he smoked a joint laced with fentanyl. The overdose despatched him to the hospital for days.
“I actually died and came back,” he stated, crediting different homeless folks with administering naloxone and saving his life. “I need to get out of this, but I feel so stuck.”
A couple of blocks west of the White Home sits a vacant plot of land that earlier this 12 months held greater than a dozen tents. Employees within the space sense what they don’t at all times see.
“I was here when this was all cleared. A bulldozer came in, and all their stuff was thrown in a garbage truck,” stated Ray Szemborski, who works throughout the road from the now-empty lot. “People are still homeless. I still see them around underneath the bridge. Sometimes they’re at bus stops, sometimes just walking around. Their tents are gone but they’re still here.”
