Today, while Mayor Bowser continued her initiative of evicting homeless encampments,  emergency legislation was introduced to the DC Council calling for the suspension of encampment clearings and a renewed focus on housing.

This legislation will remove the harmful insistence on displacement and eviction while ensuring that encampment residents can access the housing they need to thrive.

Councilmember Nadeau recently introduced emergency legislation to make the Mayor stop these harmful evictions and redirect the focus back on housing. The Council votes on the bill this Tuesday, 12/7, and we need you to contact them right now.

In addition to stopping future encampment evictions for a period of 90 days, this legislation will:

• Focus on housing encampment residents quickly and without arbitrary timelines or threats of displacement,
• Retroactively remove existing no camping zones,
• Mandate trash removal, toilets, sanitation stations, and increased fire safety at all pilot encampments, and,
• Remove the cement barricades on L and M Street that currently prevent pedestrians from walking down the sidewalk.

Evicting encampments during hypothermia season is not only is this dangerous, it goes against the guidance from the Center for Disease Control, United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, and many local DC-based advocacy groups and service providers.

We're thrilled that many encampment residents have been offered housing. However, coupling housing with evictions and displacement harms the very people this program is intended to serve. The DC Council must step in and focus on housing, not harm.

While not an adequate substitute for housing, encampments provide safety and community for our neighbors making the rational choice to avoid DC's dilapidated and crowded shelters while they await more secure housing. Kicking people out of encampments doesn't end their homelessness. Instead, it makes connecting people to housing more difficult, detaches residents from their community, and destroys their tents and belongings during the coldest time of year.

If the goal is housing, DC must stop clearing and evicting encampments and instead focus on connecting everybody experiencing homelessness with the housing they need to thrive.