President Donald Trump says that the homeless in the country’s capital, as part of his takeover of the police, will be far from the city in the District of Columbia District of Columbia.
In view of the unclear plans, there is concern between lawyers and others who say that there are better opportunities to tackle the problem of homelessness than the Clearing warehouse, as the Republican administration has to promise.
The Washington’s status as a congress federal area offers Trump the opportunity to exceed his demanding school on crime, although he has not proposed solutions for the main causes of homelessness or crime.
Here is a look at what we know and what questions remain about how Trump’s actions affect the city’s homeless people:
How many homeless people are in Washington?
It is tough to obtain precise counts from homeless population groups.
On one day at the end of January, the city authorities in the United States carry out a so-called “point-in-time” mowing, which aims to capture the total number of people in emergency shelters, transitional accommodation or without living space.
The number of 2025 in the district laid the total amount to 5,138 adults and children, a decline of 9% compared to the previous year, said the Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser.
Where are the homeless of the city from?
It is not entirely clear.
Trump wrote before the press conference on Monday on his social media website, in which the takeover was announced that “the homeless people have to move out immediately. We will give you places to stay, but far away from the capital.”
When asked by a media meeting in the White House on Tuesday, in which the homeless would be resettled, said press spokesman Karoline Leavitt, the local police and the federal authorities would “enforce the laws that were already in the books”, which was “completely ignored”.
Calking to an urban regulation that “authorizes the local police to take measures in relation to homeless warehouses,” said Leavitt, that the homeless is “giving the opportunity to leave their warehouse to get to a homeless shelter to offer addiction or psychological health services.” Those who refuse will “be susceptible to fines or prison hours.”
In the past five months, the US park police have removed 70 homeless warehouse and gave the same options to the people who live in them, she said. Until Tuesday, Leavitt said that only two homeless camps remained in the district parks that were cultivated by the National Park Service and would be removed this week.
What do city officials do for the homeless?
District officers said on Tuesday that they had made additional shelters available after Trump said that federal agents would remove homeless people in the city.
Kevin Donahue, the city administrator, said that Outreach worker attended homeless camps and that the city had a building available in which up to 200 people could be accommodated if necessary.
Donahue made the comments during a conversation with Community lawyers and Bowser. The conversation was broadcast on X.
He said public relations work would continue the week with a “greater degree of urgency”.
Bowser said when Trump sees homeless camps in the city, “it triggers something in it that believes that our very beautiful city is dirty, which it is not.”
What do people say in Washington?
Washington’s residents emphasized the reduction in crime in recent years and concerns about the removal of homeless camps in interviews in which the takeover of the city of the city was criticized on Tuesday.
Jeraod Tire, who has lived in the city for 15 years, said “the crime has recently slowed down” and argued that the federal troops would only escalate the tensions because they have no “relationships with the people in the community”, as the local police do.
The 36 -year -old Shiena Taylor said that it was more afraid due to the presence of federal forces in the city in which she was born and grew up.
Taylor said she saw federal officials in her home and in the U -Bahn and worried about her orientation of adolescent people and people who experience homelessness.
“To be homeless is not a crime,” she said, emphasizing the need for solutions for the basic causes of homelessness or crime and not police work.
At several places all over the city, AP journalists spoke with homeless people who were chosen either by law enforcement officers from the federal government or the interest representative groups to pack tents and belongings from parks and other public spaces in front of more formal removal measures. Some expressed fear and fear of what could come.
What do we not yet know?
It is not exactly clear what the agents are specially commissioned with the task of the homeless in areas outside the city.
There was also no detailed information about how people are placed in up-to-date places or provided.
Some supporters have raised constitutional issues about legality to violently remove homeless people from the city.
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Associated Press Writers Christine Fernando in Chicago, Mike Balsamo and Darlene Superville; Video journalist River Zhang; And the photographer Jacquelyn Martin contributed to this report.
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Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/megkinnardap
