“Is it illegal to be homeless?” Washington, D.C.

David Harold Pugh over the past eight months Washington, DC. He kept everything, including a guitar, and tied the two-wheeled off-road vehicle together.

“It’s a shelter. It’s a safe place where I can put the off-roader against the wall and it’s against that beam so no one can roll it.” “I roll back and I sleep next to it, so no one can wake up and no one can get it.”

He is one of more than 5,000 people in the city, without a permanent residence and now faces uncertainty about where to find shelter Donald Trump explain Homeless people Must be away from the city in DC.

On Thursday, crews tore up a major camp near the Kennedy Center, federal law enforcement evacuated residents and cleared the remaining camps throughout the city. The evacuation was part of Trump’s federal takeover of the city’s police department and deployed the National Guard throughout the city.

Pug believes Trump administration Being disconnected by blaming the crime on unwelcome individuals. “Homelessness is not illegal,” he said.

Despite closing the extensive camp, Pug told The Guardian that he had no plans to go to the shelter this week and wanted to stay close to him. “If they told me to scroll, I would scroll, and I would come back when they left.”

In a camp throughout the city, at the intersection of Rock Creek Parkway and Whitehurst Freeway, a homeless man has packed his property. He said he had to bounce to various locations over the past few weeks.

G. said: “It’s just punching. So you never settle down. It feels like you [are] On the edge. ”

G is still only a few days away from the street entering permanent housing. The only thing he lacks is a new Social Security card that he will have soon, but until then, he isn’t sure where he’ll go.

“What should I do for six days? Should I tell the National Guard, or do I have six days? It takes six days, and I’m actually in Social Security [office] 20th. ”G.

Now, the camp is now closed near DC, just a few days before he can secure a stable housing, he said he might consider living in a shelter.

He said: “I know the shelter may be full. I don’t even know where the shelter is, and they didn’t give us any list. No, nothing. They just made us fully aware of the possibility.”

Unwelcome residents who want shelters will not be turned away, and the city is ready to expand capacity as needed, according to the Deputy Mayor of Health and Public Services Office.

But if homeless people refuse to leave the camp, the Trump administration says its options are limited.

In a press conference earlier this week, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said homeless people could face fines or even jail if they refuse to go to shelter or receive addiction or mental health services.

“Our business is to make sure people have information and they can connect with resources if they want, but, you know, people will stay and make their own decisions,” said Kierstin Quinsland, chief program officer at DC Miriam’s Kitchen. “But it’s very worrying if people refuse to provide services, people will be threatened with arrest.”

Jesse Rabinowitz of the National Homeless Many unpopular people sleep in Washington, D.C. and across the country because rents are too expensive, the Law Center said. “Arson or ticket salesperson sleeping outside makes homeless people worse, wasting taxpayers’ money and doesn’t work at all,” Rabinowitz said in a written statement. “The solution to homelessness is housing and support, not handcuffs and prison.”

Quinslan said advocates and community partners have been mobilized to keep a close eye on the camp to ensure support is provided to unwelcome people and “as respected as much as possible.”

One of their biggest concerns about these federal police officers, she said, is the loss of connection with homeless residents. Quinsland said in many cases that advocates work with the city’s unpopular population for weeks, months or more if they try to move them towards permanent housing.

“You know, trust is a problem in homeless propaganda. A lot of people [who] “Outside, they refuse shelter because they don’t trust the service. So these relationships with people are precious and they are hard,” Quinnslan said.

Advocates also warn that these city-wide camps can distinguish homeless people from critical support and social services.

“If they moved to a place where they didn’t know where to eat, they didn’t even know how to get back to the neighborhood they knew,” Quinnslan said.

Quinsland said the outreach street team with Miriam’s kitchen had passed on cheap cell phones to unwelcome residents to help them stay in touch before the camp was closed.

“Make sure they have our phone number and use it with our business card to make sure they may end up getting anywhere and we can stay in touch,” she said.

In the following weeks, Trump took over the DC Police Department temporarily, Queensland said there was also discussion about bringing homeless residents to Montgomery County, Maryland or parts of Virginia or parts of Virginia.

But it’s just a temporary solution, she said, because homeless service providers need more money to address the issue.

“The long-term answer is that if we have the political will to put money into the city budget for housing, we can do that,” Quinnslan said. “This year, there are zero dollars in the budget that permanently supports housing certificates, so that’s not helping.”