The National Park Service (NPS) and the Bowser Administration are slated to evict and permanently close 5 encampment sites in Foggy Bottom between May 15th and May 20th, a harmful approach that will displace up to 70 people. While a small NPS encampment closure was scheduled months ago, NPS has recently expanded the scope of these evictions and DC has taken this opportunity to close various sites on the same timeline.
We are asking organizations, both in DC and nationally, to come together and
sign on to this letter telling the Bowser Administration and the National Parks Service to stop this eviction.
Displacing encampment residents does nothing to end homelessness and in fact harms the collective efforts made to ensure that our neighbors have a safe place to call home.
Encampment evictions traumatize residents, create distrust, and bring additional chaos to the lives of individuals who are already in survival mode.
The Way Home Campaign is calling on the Bowser Administration and the National Parks Service to halt this eviction until at least The Aston opens and until every encampment resident has an option that meets their needs.
Due to our advocacy, DC has made progress towards ending chronic homelessness by funding vouchers and offering shelter options that help meet the needs of our neighbors in the process of getting housed. The Aston was scheduled to open in Ward 2, close to the encampments in question, last fall. However, the opening of the shelter has been delayed until August. Clearing encampments when there is a non-congregate shelter solution just months from opening is particularly egregious. Instead of focusing on displacing and evicting our neighbors, the Bowser administration should devote energy and resources to implement its existing plan to end homelessness and to connect residents to housing options that are already funded. We urge both the National Park Service and the Bowser administration not to clear this encampment before the residents matched to housing are able to move into the Aston or connect to other housing solutions.
We know you are committed to ending chronic homelessness through solutions that work rather than harmful practices that get in the way of our progress. Please join us in taking action and urge policy makers to halt the upcoming encampment evictions in Foggy Bottom. Use
this page to send an email urging Mayor Bowser; Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, Wayne Turnage; Chair of the DC Committee on Health, Christina Henderson; Chair of the Judiciary and Public Safety, Brooke Pinto, and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland.
Click here to read the full text of this letter. We also encourage DC residents to
click here to email the same local and elected officials and tell them that DC residents do not support this encampment eviction.
For more information, please email Nadia at nadia.malik@miriamskitchen.org
