Testimony of Joshua M. Drumming, Policy and Advocacy Attorney, and Brittany K. Ruffin, Legal Director, Systemic Advocacy and Litigation, The Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless
January 27, 2026
The Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless envisions a District of Columbia where housing is a human right, racial justice is a reality, and all people have true and meaningful access to the resources needed to thrive.
D.C. encampment residents in the District of Columbia have long been under siege but are now, likely, in the most precarious position they have ever had to experience. As we testified to during the last oversight and budget season, DMHHS has decreased their notice period from fourteen-days to seven days. However, following both an executive order and a mayoral order, DMHHS oftentimes bypasses notice altogether through its use of the immediate disposition protocol – more so than it already did.
Immediate dispositions allow DMHHS to clear encampments without notice on the website or at the encampment site, as long as DMHHS claims they pose immediate risks to health and safety. Encampment clearings can too easily qualify as immediate dispositions due to the nebulous nature of the “public health and safety” determination. Justifications for determinations are not shared. As a result, encampments that appear to be no different than any other and pose no actual public risk are often swiftly dismantled and their residents are dispossessed. Often, immediate dispositions are used for single persons. Those encampment residents often receive little to no outreach before clearings and posted signage may not even be visible. Once clearings begin, all, or nearly all, belongings are thrown away, despite DMHHS’s mandate to store non-trash items. The seizure and destruction of belongings during immediate dispositions without notice (or adequate notice), the requisite risk factor, due process, or post-deprivation proceedings, are likely unconstitutional and will potentially lead to unnecessary litigation.
Increased encampment clearings and immediate dispositions have created unnecessary chaos and outreach disruptions in D.C. From 2024 to now, the number of encampments has declined from over eighty to sixty-two. DMHHS cleared thirty-six encampments in Fiscal Year 2024. In 2025, DMHHS removed 128 encampments, a 355 percent increase. These numbers indicate a clear policy choice. While DMHHS used to conduct engagements like bulk trash removals, agency leadership has recently admitted that a current policy goal is to dismantle and clear all encampments. Unfortunately, that policy goal does not necessarily come with an offer of stable housing.
To be clear, the joint presidential and mayoral efforts to “clean up” or “beautify” D.C. and the resulting decrease in encampment visibility are not evidence of a decline in District homelessness. Unhoused residents have been forced to relocate, but they still exist. D.C.
homelessness still exists. In the last year, without first being offered housing, unsheltered D.C. residents have been dispossessed by the dual forces of DMHHS and federal agencies.
Last year, President Trump issued an executive order, targeting all encampments on federal land, and creating an encampment eviction task force meant to coordinate with local officials to clear D.C. land as well. Last August, the Legal Clinic witnessed a large group of law enforcement officials, composed of MPD, FBI, and Secret Service, descend upon a small group of encamped residents located at Washington Circle. These were residents who had already received notices of a pending clearing by DMHHS for a future date. These residents, to their detriment, relied on the assumption that they could trust dates on D.C. government notices. Ultimately, they were forced by law enforcement to relocate days earlier than expected.
In another instance, an unhoused woman, adamant about preserving her belongings, heeded DMHHS warnings and moved several times in an attempt to avoid any negative government interactions or risks to her property. Despite her efforts, her belongings were ultimately thrown away during an unnoticed encampment clearing while she was away briefly attending to her personal needs. She would later recover a few, damaged items from DC government personnel.
In yet another case, a client set up a tent as D.C. was beginning to enter hypothermia season. He received a DMHHS notice to move his tent. He complied, moving his tent under a bridge, but received a new notice there. He had a brief respite before he was, within a span of a few weeks, relocated six times. During this period of time, he, someone who simply wanted somewhere to sleep at night, had interactions with personnel from NPS, USPP, DMHHS, and MPD. It is a sobering truth that in the nation’s capital, people that pose no risk of violence are subjected to interactions with almost half a dozen local and federal agencies.
Unfortunately, these situations are far too common. We have met multiple unsheltered D.C. residents who have been pushed around the city, with their encampments targeted almost as soon as they have relocated. Some individuals have reported leaving D.C. to prioritize safety and avoid the uncertainty that now comes with being unhoused in D.C. Months later, we have far fewer visible encampments and more, primarily Black, DC residents displaced throughout the District and out of D.C., due to the fear of losing possessions and potential law enforcement interaction. The extent of the harm that has been done to D.C.’s unsheltered community as a result of the increased clearings and DMHHS’s cooperation with the federal government is still unclear, but the harm is empirically evident when walking down D.C. streets. Unhoused D.C. residents have retreated further into the shadows and become fearful of the D.C. agencies that are supposed to be concerned for their safety.
We urge D.C. Council to evaluate the encampment protocol and create legislative policies that standardize definitions and requirements for encampment evictions of all types, establishing due process for encampment residents and minimizing opportunity for random and/or politicized encampment evictions. We ask that D.C. Council enforce a prohibition against law enforcement engaging in pretextual stops that hinge upon race, ethnicity, and/or housing status.
D.C. Council should suspend all encampment clearings. Instead, D.C. should conduct trash only cleanings, provide additional trash cans at encampments, and maintain portable bathrooms and hand washing stations. Additionally, D.C. should suspend all D.C. government efforts to direct or cooperate with any federal government targeting of encampments for evictions/displacement.
It is necessary that D.C. Council send a message that everyone, regardless of their socio-economic or housing status, is welcome in D.C. and that D.C. intends to protect and support all of its residents.