Homelessness in DC- has it gotten worse?

[Anonymous]

Visited DC for the long weekend after moving away 5 years ago. Is it just me or has the homeless population increased exponentially? There were tents in many parks, on the sidewalk in DuPont Circle…. Basically everywhere. What is being done to help?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Visited DC for the long weekend after moving away 5 years ago. Is it just me or has the homeless population increased exponentially? There were tents in many parks, on the sidewalk in DuPont Circle…. Basically everywhere. What is being done to help?

Happening in all the big cities. Due to Covid shelters were risky so they started giving them tents. For DC specific it is pretty amazing that the Park Service won't let you camp for more than 7 days at many popular parks but on park service land in DC you can have a homeless tent city for months and they don't care.

[Anonymous]

Lots of homeless were actually living in hotel all throughout Covid. Those programs are naturally running down.

I also think the homeless population is more noticeable with less office workers in the downtown area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Visited DC for the long weekend after moving away 5 years ago. Is it just me or has the homeless population increased exponentially? There were tents in many parks, on the sidewalk in DuPont Circle…. Basically everywhere. What is being done to help?

Happening in all the big cities. Due to Covid shelters were risky so they started giving them tents. For DC specific it is pretty amazing that the Park Service won't let you camp for more than 7 days at many popular parks but on park service land in DC you can have a homeless tent city for months and they don't care.

Op: I live in Boston and while it has gotten worse here, it is nowhere near as bad as DC. Maybe due to the colder climate in the winter, but I’m not convinced.

[Anonymous]

DC has to be careful. It is a magnet for folks whose mental illness is triggered by the industrio-political-military complex. They are attractefld.to DC to lodge their complaints. It also risks being overly generous with the social responsibilities of our neighbors (MD and VA), much like the early days of Covid vaccines. DC should take care of DC residents, and by take care of I mean shelter or hospitalize (including involuntarily). If someone is recently arrived from somewhere else and plops on the sidewalk, bus tickets home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC has to be careful. It is a magnet for folks whose mental illness is triggered by the industrio-political-military complex. They are attractefld.to DC to lodge their complaints. It also risks being overly generous with the social responsibilities of our neighbors (MD and VA), much like the early days of Covid vaccines. DC should take care of DC residents, and by take care of I mean shelter or hospitalize (including involuntarily). If someone is recently arrived from somewhere else and plops on the sidewalk, bus tickets home.

DC has become more like certain ocean communities in Southern California. Some folks keep going west until they reach the Pacific and have to stop, in a location with better social spending than most and generally favorable weather.

[Anonymous]

I spotted MPD clearing out the encampment off the parkway near the Kennedy Center this afternoon. Had about 7 cruisers, a van and EMTs on the scene.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC has to be careful. It is a magnet for folks whose mental illness is triggered by the industrio-political-military complex. They are attractefld.to DC to lodge their complaints. It also risks being overly generous with the social responsibilities of our neighbors (MD and VA), much like the early days of Covid vaccines. DC should take care of DC residents, and by take care of I mean shelter or hospitalize (including involuntarily). If someone is recently arrived from somewhere else and plops on the sidewalk, bus tickets home.

Everyone I know in DC got their vaccine in MD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC has to be careful. It is a magnet for folks whose mental illness is triggered by the industrio-political-military complex. They are attractefld.to DC to lodge their complaints. It also risks being overly generous with the social responsibilities of our neighbors (MD and VA), much like the early days of Covid vaccines. DC should take care of DC residents, and by take care of I mean shelter or hospitalize (including involuntarily). If someone is recently arrived from somewhere else and plops on the sidewalk, bus tickets home.

Everyone I know in DC got their vaccine in MD.

Yep. Until about May, Bowser couldn’t get DC’s act together. We know Washingtonians who drove to Winchester, Norfolk, Roanoke, even NC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I spotted MPD clearing out the encampment off the parkway near the Kennedy Center this afternoon. Had about 7 cruisers, a van and EMTs on the scene.

Interesting. There is a lot of road construction going on there. I wonder if that is why?

[Anonymous]

100%

BTW, has there always been a tent city off of E street?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC has to be careful. It is a magnet for folks whose mental illness is triggered by the industrio-political-military complex. They are attractefld.to DC to lodge their complaints. It also risks being overly generous with the social responsibilities of our neighbors (MD and VA), much like the early days of Covid vaccines. DC should take care of DC residents, and by take care of I mean shelter or hospitalize (including involuntarily). If someone is recently arrived from somewhere else and plops on the sidewalk, bus tickets home.

Everyone I know in DC got their vaccine in MD.

Yep. Until about May, Bowser couldn’t get DC’s act together. We know Washingtonians who drove to Winchester, Norfolk, Roanoke, even NC.

Yep , they went there because Bowser's initial push was workers from MD and VA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:100%

BTW, has there always been a tent city off of E street?

No, I passed that one today myself and was shocked at how many tents there were.

[Anonymous]

It's awful. But on the bright side, real estate will eventually come down or at least plateau. Shrug. We moved out of Dupont because it was becoming too much with kids. I shouldn't have to walk the long way around basically everywhere to keep my kids safe. It's exhausting to be on high alert. We talk about homelessness a lot and my kids are pretty aware of what goes on in their hood, but a few incidents and I was just ready to walk away. We're still in the city, just Dupont sucks now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC has to be careful. It is a magnet for folks whose mental illness is triggered by the industrio-political-military complex. They are attractefld.to DC to lodge their complaints. It also risks being overly generous with the social responsibilities of our neighbors (MD and VA), much like the early days of Covid vaccines. DC should take care of DC residents, and by take care of I mean shelter or hospitalize (including involuntarily). If someone is recently arrived from somewhere else and plops on the sidewalk, bus tickets home.

Everyone I know in DC got their vaccine in MD.

Yep. Until about May, Bowser couldn’t get DC’s act together. We know Washingtonians who drove to Winchester, Norfolk, Roanoke, even NC.

Umm don't be obtuse.

The largest federal vaccination center was on the WMATA train line at the Greenbelt station.

https://www.wmata.com/about/news/Greenbelt-vaccination-site.cfm?alerts-widget-next-train-all=F11

It was provided by the U.S. Federal government not the government of Maryland - state lines in this case being immaterial. And don't act like all of you weren't pouring into our city for free Covid tests.