(WASHINGTON, D.C – March 28th)

Amidst a national worsening housing and homelessness crisis, Donald Trump has signed an Executive Order that will make homelessness in DC worse, not better.  

Trump’s Executive Order directs the Secretary of the Interior to utilize the National Park Service to displace homeless people surviving on federal lands in DC with no plan to house them. Unlike other jurisdictions, the Federal Government controls a high percentage of land in DC, including many small neighborhood parks. DC currently has nearly 1,000 people who sleep outside, DC’s 800 low-barrier shelter beds are already full. There are limited cots in hypothermia shelters, but those are closing soon. Research shows that encampment evictions without a plan to house people decrease public safety, waste money, and increase health risks.  

This is consistent with Trump’s campaign promises to focus on expensive, inhumane, and ineffective solutions to homelessness like camping bans and forced relocation to government-run detention camps. 

“As is true when cities across the country use policing and force to target people who have no choice but to live outside, Trump’s expected actions are reckless, expensive, and make homelessness worse.  Like many of Trump’s plans, the impacts of this order will fall hardest on Black and brown people, LGBTQ communities, and people with disabilities,  communities that are already experiencing homelessness at disparate rates,” said Jesse Rabinowitz from the National Homelessness Law Center. 

“Real leaders focus on solutions, not on kicking people when they are down. If politicians like Donald Trump and DC Mayor Muriel Bowser truly want to see fewer people living outside, they must focus on the proven solutions to homelessness: housing and support. DC can be a city where everyone – no matter who they are or how much they have in their bank account – has a place to live. Trump claims to care about government efficiency, but we know that evicting people from encampments wastes taxpayer dollars and government resources, while not actually helping anybody. Our elected officials should be solving our housing and homelessness problems instead of making them worse,” Rabinowitz continued.  

The use of jails, tickets, and fines for people sleeping outside when they have nowhere else to go is both ineffective and deeply unpopular, with almost three out of four adults nationwide rejecting this practice. 

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About the National Homelessness Law Center   

The National Homelessness Law Center is committed to protecting the rights of unhoused people across the United States and to advocating for policies that prevent and end homelessness, ensuring that all people have access to safe and adequate housing.