WASHINGTON — More than 60 people live in a tent encampment at McPherson Square at 15th and K Street NW. Many say they are there because they've been pushed out of other parks and consider this their last option.
Wednesday morning that option, too, will be gone if the National Park Service follows through on its plan to clear the park of people and their belongings.
One person living in McPherson Square off and on for the past several years is Thomas Dyson.
"That's the life I've been going through," he said just hours before the planned clearing at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
The National Park Service had planned to clear this encampment in April.
But, it says at the request of the city, it moved that date up because public health and safety concerns in the park.
"People don't know where they're going to go," said Dyson.
Advocates for the unhoused like Jesse Rabinowitz with Miriam's Kitchen say the moved-up date is dangerous for the people they serve.
"I'm very concerned for what happens tomorrow," he said Tuesday night.
Rabinowitz says people in the park will be pushed to sidewalks and overpasses and will likely lose contact with the organizations that were already racing to find them shelter before the original April clearing date.
"We actually know through research and experience that encampment evictions lead to more overdoses. There is more trauma," he said. "People are displaced from their community."
"The solution to people's health conditions is not to get them out of a place where they feel safe and where they have community. The solution is to get folks into housing," Rabinowitz said who was one of thousands to email D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowsers office along with nearly 100 ANC commissioners and D.C. councilmembers who called for the clearing to be postponed.
"I don't think that any of us should pretend that these issues are simple," Bowser said Monday at a ribbon cutting for new apartments for the unhoused.
Bowser said the city is working with the people living in this encampment, but with too few case workers, her administration concedes there is a backlog of people who are eligible for help but can't yet get it.
"Our approach has been to make sure that we are connecting people to services and we will keep working with them and keep working with them and keep working with them," she said. "But what we cannot allow is for dangerous encampments to grow in our city."
Rabinowitz said D.C. has the resources to, "end homelessness at our fingertips. We're just not using them quickly enough. We need to focus all of our energy on using resources, clearing the backlog of vouchers, not clearing encampments."
He worries about confrontations with park police and possible arrests when the square is cleared and says a team of lawyers will be on hand to assist those being moved.
American Civil Liberties Union D.C. Organization Director Maxine Davis issued the following statement on Wednesday:
“Evictions never solve homelessness and always traumatize residents who simply need a place to live. By scattering our neighbors from a single location, evictions also make it much more difficult to connect people with the safe housing and dependable services they need. Evicting our neighbors at the height of hypothermia season with very little notice is an especially cruel decision.
The forced evictions that the Mayor and NPS have carried out in the past have pushed people from park to park, destroying their belongings, and disrupting their remaining support networks. By using police officers to assist with and enforce these evictions, the Mayor and NPS have put our neighbors at risk of arrest and harassment simply for trying to survive.
The long-term solution to homelessness is safe and dependable housing, not forced evictions with no plan.”
Park Police are expected to arrive at McPherson Square by 7 a.m. but advocates say they've been assured the removal of tents will not start until 10 a.m.
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