D.C.’s CARE program displaces homeless communities

By Teddy Curtin and Kyla Smith Staff Writers

Where only first names appear, names have been changed to protect the identities of the sources.

At 791 Wharf Street in Southwest Washington, D.C., Del Mar Restaurant has erected several “luxe” tents that diners can enjoy for $75 per person. Similar outdoor tented dining has started popping up throughout the District’s northwest at higher end restaurants like Bresco and Fiola.

Meanwhile, only blocks away at the intersection of the NoMa underpass and McPherson Square, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s encampment pilot program has been bulldozing tents—not those rented by restaurateurs, but permanent communities established by the city’s homeless population.

The Coordinated Assistance and Resources for Encampments (CARE) pilot program, which Bowser announced in August 2021, seeks to provide substance use services, case management, and housing opportunities to individuals living in D.C.’s homeless encampments. The program also strives to clean up the encampments and disperse individuals living in tents or other non-official dwellings on federal land.

During the pandemic, concerns for the health and safety of National Park Service workers cleaning up encampments and interacting with homeless communities temporarily halted encampment removals. On Dec. 21, 2021, the D.C. Council voted against a bill that would prolong the two year hiatus of clearing encampments.

As such, the National Park Service (NPS) resumed clearing in August 2021, stating that it would only clear encampments if they posed a serious and immediate risk to the health and safety of the public or individuals living inside of the encampment. As of March, NPS has closed five encampments, and D.C. has closed nine. The NPS’ goal is to close all encampments on D.C. federal land by the end of 2023. explains. “With the McPherson square clearing, there was an overdose death, which was one of the [stated] reasons… for clearing the encampment. But if you are looking at harm reduction techniques to reduce overdose, you know that isolating folks and pushing them away from their communities of support actually increases overdose deaths.”

The CARE initiative states that its mission is to improve the safety and quality of life of those living in encampments. However, Kelly Andreae, Executive Director of Georgetown Ministry Center, which provides toiletries, showers, meals, and social aid to the homeless, explains that CARE does not fulfill its promises of improving security for homeless individuals. “[CARE] doesn’t accomplish any of the stated objectives of the encampment clearing. It doesn’t make anyone safer,” she says.

Besides providing support, homeless communities that are created in encampments can make their residents feel safer. Anne Marie Cuccia, a journalist for the homelessness advocacy newspaper Street Sense Media, says that homeless individuals, particularly women, feel safer in encampment communities.

“Knowing, I think, especially for women, [that] there are other people around… their friends and people that they are close to… [helps]. It is an incredibly vulnerable position to be living outside on the street, and so I think having more people around, for some people, makes them feel safer,” Cuccia says.

Andreae also believes that by clearing encampments, the program disperses communities that provide support for the homeless, which complicates the jobs of service providers.

“[Encampment closures] wreck communities, [so] of course it makes it harder for any of these organizations like Georgetown Ministry Center to engage with folks and puts them at higher risk,” Andreae

Even in inclement weather, some homeless people will refuse government provided housing to stay in their encampments with their community. Maurice has been living in a shelter in D.C. for five weeks. Before that, he lived in Chicago, where he experienced many homeless communities who would stay outside even during the Chicago winter as encampments are where many homeless people feel safest.

“Chicago, where it gets extremely cold outside, [has] encampments, and [social workers] come to them and say, ‘Look, we’re going to put you all in nice hotels,’ and the people in these tent cities [are] like, ‘No, this is our place, we don’t want to leave,’” Maurice explains.

Aside from the community cre- ated in encampments, some homeless people choose to live in these spaces because of certain restrictions enforced in shelters. Many shelters do not allow pets and animals, prompting those with dogs to stay outside. Shelters are also mostly divided by sexual orientation, eliminating the option for people to live with a significant other or family member.

In addition to these restrictions, Qaadir El-Amin, who was formerly homeless and is a current advocate for the homeless, says unhygienic conditions, threats, and violence are reasons why people may refuse living inside of a shelter.

When El-Amin was staying at a shelter, he also reports having money stolen from him. “I used to have a change bucket in Virginia, and people gave me change and I put it in the change bucket. People [would] come in my room trying to take the little change.”

Given that the CARE program does not guarantee housing after displacement and that shelters are a difficult or impossible option for some, Andreae explains that

D.C.’s homeless population is now left with very little choice regarding where and how they live. “As the encampments are being cleared… there isn’t a solution for those individuals that are being cleared. They’re just getting displaced,” she says.

The community provided within encampments reassures the residents that they are real people who deserve to be surrounded by a community. For many, displacements can send the exact opposite message.

Amanda, a government employee who works with youth advocacy and close to homeless youth, says the displacement of homeless people often serves to further dehumanize those individuals. “I think what’s saddening is that in this process [of displacement], folks just kind of lose that whole perception that of ‘Hey, these are people that are just trying to be people; they’re just trying to be loved,’” she says. “For whatever reason someone is living in a tent, that should not matter; that should not deescalate the value of a human.”