Ami Angell, the founder and director of outreach at The h3 project, which conducts outreach to those experiencing homelessness in D.C., said Ward 2 likely has the highest concentration of encampments because recent encampment clearings in wards 5 and 6 have displaced people to areas like Foggy Bottom. She said some people living outside move between wards to escape reminders of previous trauma from clearings or other personal incidents.

“It’s not moral, really, to move folks that are so vulnerable and literally in trauma and in crisis, tell them that they can no longer reside where they are without giving some other option to them,” Angell said.

She said city officials often prioritize clearing an encampment after it gains heightened attention due to violent incidents — like the 2021 stabbing at the K Street underpass — or after neighbors voice complaints about trash or needles near the encampment.

Angell said Foggy Bottom encampments haven’t garnered such attention until the past few years when neighbors began to complain about trash accumulation, which could have prompted the D.C. government to order clearings. Before the Foggy Bottom and West End Advisory Neighborhood Commission passed a resolution in April denouncing the plan to clear the Triangle Park encampment, some community members said they couldn’t visit Foggy Bottom parks with encampments because of concerns about a lack of hygiene in the area.

She said some unhoused people, particularly women and LGBTQ+ individuals, rely on encampments for safety because they are more likely to be assaulted or harassed if they live on their own.

“Once individuals find one individual or a group of individuals that they feel comfortable with, just we like to have our community gatherings, that’s the same,” Angell said. “But especially when you’re outside, because of the safety issue as well.”

The GW Hatchet (Independent Student Newspaper Serving GW Community Since 1904) FULL ARTICLE