Authorities are sweeping dozens of homeless encampments in northwestern Washington as part of President Trump’s sprawling takeover of the city’s law enforcement apparatus.
City officials and advocates for the homeless had spent much of Thursday working ahead of a federal operation that had been expected to start at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time, urging people in encampments to go to shelters.
“The District has worked proactively with homeless residents ahead of these actions to provide services and offers of shelter,” read a statement from the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services. “DC will support the engagements with wraparound services and trash pickup, but the planned engagements are otherwise the purview of the federal agencies.”
Charles Allen, a member of the D.C. council, said city officials had explained to the council that the operation would target about 25 sites in the city’s northwest quadrant, starting around 6:30 p.m. Otherwise, he said, “it is very unclear to us” what the operation entailed and that no one from the White House had reached out.
A little after 6 p.m. there were signs that the effort was underway, with city police gathering at an area outside the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, where many homeless people spend the nights. Most of the homeless had already departed when police arrived, leaving behind belongings in piles on the sidewalk.
Local police referred inquiries about the operation to the White House, which had not replied to questions.
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