DC needs to get our house in order before we order people out of theirs

Yesterday, DC crews began to clear an encampment on L Street NE in NoMa. Shortly thereafter, they bulldozed a tent while someone was still inside. The man’s screams were audible. The act was horrifying, with video footage of the aftermath quickly flooding social media. Work on the site ceased, at least temporarily. DC officials say the man in the tent did not sustain any injuries but did receive medical attention.

The viral clip drew increased attention to advocates’ claim that, despite promises to the contrary, fewer than half of the encampment’s residents had been connected to housing before their tents and possessions were cleared away. Martin Austermuhle with WAMU notes 22 people obtained housing while eight are waiting for their vouchers to wend their way through bureaucratic processes. Others say no one reached out to them about housing at all.

DC’s bureaucracy did not move quickly enough to get many residents into housing prior to encampment clearance, despite the obvious consequences, but it did keep to its “cleaning” schedule.

This is, at best, a bureaucratic failure, and at worst, an unjust bureaucracy functioning as it was designed. It reminds us that encampment clearance is for the comfort of the housed, not the benefit of residents experiencing homelessness. Encampment clearance, conducted in this way, criminalizes individuals who exist in supposedly public space because they do not conform to expectations of what it means to exist appropriately in public space. As the Way Home campaign notes, this further destabilizes residents’ lives.

It doesn’t need to be this way, and for a time, it seemed like it wouldn’t be this way.

“[W]e’re going to connect them to housing if they would agree to go to housing,” said Wayne Turnage, the deputy mayor for health and human services, in DCist back in mid-September.

Turnage had reason to be optimistic. DC has no shortage of public officials who are committed to providing housing to end homelessness — and they’re better poised for impact than ever before.

The FY 2022 budget contains an unprecedented level of investment in housing, including more than 2,300 vouchers for individuals. This builds on and greatly expands Mayor Bowser’s efforts over the last several years, which have significantly reduced family homelessness.

The encampment pilot program’s stated objective is “to provide intensive case management and behavioral health/substance use services to encamped individuals while working to connect clients to appropriate housing opportunities.”

And yet, yesterday, that’s not what happened. Some leaders’ compassionate intentions and even unprecedented resources aren’t sufficient to prevent a cruel outcome when the systems themselves aren’t designed to put the most vulnerable first.

It’s time for a hard look at this pilot’s implementation. Why did clearance move forward when the stated objectives had not yet been met? What will it take to prevent this from happening again? We need to get our house in order before ordering people out of theirs.