Washington's homeless are hiding in plain sight, getting sicker and costing taxpayers more

Washington's homeless are hiding in plain sight, getting sicker and costing taxpayers more

Every night, Abdullah Ibrahim retreats from the road into a section of forest along the Potomac River.

When night falls and the temperatures drop, he sets up a tent and builds a fire under a canopy of pine, hemlock and cedar.

He evades the authorities by taking turns using three tents of different colors at three campsites. As day breaks, he dismantles his shelter, rolls up his belongings and hides them for the next night. “They don’t see you when you’re in the forest,” said the 32-year-old. “But make sure it’s broken by morning or they’ll find you.”

During the day he wanders around, stopping at a public library to warm up or at a soup kitchen to get something to eat. What's important is that he doesn't draw attention to himself because he's homeless.

“The police want to get us out of the way,” he said, dressed in a gray jacket and without his possessions. “Out of sight, out of mind.”

Ibrahim has wanted to get involved since August, when President Donald Trump placed the county's police force under federal control and ordered National Guard soldiers to patrol the streets. The president also ordered homeless people to leave immediately. "There will be no 'MR. NICE GUY,'" he posted.

The Trump administration says encampments have reduced the visibility of homelessness, thereby improving the city. “There is no doubt that Washington, D.C. is a safer, cleaner and more beautiful city thanks to President Trump's historic actions to restore the nation's capital,” said White House spokesman Taylor Rogers.

Although there appear to be fewer homeless people in the nation's capital right now, they haven't disappeared.

In interviews, homeless people said they were constantly on the move and hiding in plain sight. During the day they keep moving, eating in soup kitchens and occasionally resting in public libraries, on park benches or at bus stops. At night, many unprotected people sleep in shop entrances, on sidewalks in parks and on church steps. Some ride the bus all night while others seek shelter in the emergency room. Others find peace in the woods or escape to the suburbs of Virginia or Maryland.

According to homelessness statistics in early 2025, Washington, D.C. around 5,100 homeless people, including in emergency shelters. After Trump ordered the crackdown on public homelessness, people living in makeshift communities dispersed and now live in the shadows. City officials estimated in August that nearly 700 homeless people were living outdoors without tents or other shelter.

As winter approaches, they are exposed to the elements and become sicker as chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease go untreated. Street medics say they have had enormous difficulty finding patients since the National Guard was deployed. Many people caught in the search have had their life-saving medications thrown away and are more likely to miss medical appointments because they are constantly on the go. Street medicine providers say they cannot find their patients to deliver medication or transport them to medical appointments. The constant chaos can drag patients with mental illness and substance use deeper into drug and alcohol addiction and increase the risk of overdose.

Caseworkers report similar disruptions: When clients go missing, they cut connections essential to obtaining housing documents, especially IDs and Social Security cards.

County officials and health care providers say this cascade will worsen homelessness, endanger public health and safety and impose enormous costs on the health care system.

“It was already difficult to find people, but the federal presence just made it worse,” said Tobie Smith, a street medicine physician and executive director of Street Health DC

The homeless shuffle

Chris Jones is in Washington, D.C. born and raised, but now he is homeless, having been evicted from his tent near the White House in the early days of the federal crackdown on homeless people. He said two of his tents were stolen during the evacuation. Now that he's sleeping on the sidewalk in front of a church, he doesn't bother getting another one. "Why? What's the point? It's just thrown away again."

Jones, 57, has a serious knee injury that prevents him from walking for several days and said he is scheduled to have a knee replacement in December. He said it's important to stay where he is — he relies on a nearby pharmacy to refill his medications for bipolar disorder, diabetes and high blood pressure. When he's hungry, he goes to a soup kitchen to eat or tries to grab a cheeseburger and a soda at a fast food joint across the street.

It was important that he stay outside the church, he said, so that his case manager could find him when a permanent place to live became available. If it gets too cold, he said, he'll cross the street and sleep in the doorway of a store, which can provide a little more shelter. He wants to go into the house, but waits first.

Since taking control of police in Washington, the Trump administration has increased pressure on cities and counties across the country to clear homeless encampments under the threat of arrest, citation or incarceration. It has ordered or threatened similar National Guard deployments in Los Angeles; Portland, Ore.; and other cities with large homeless populations.

Rogers, the White House spokesman, said the president was maintaining the National Guard and federal law enforcement presence in the nation's capital "to ensure the long-term success of the federal operation." Since March, city and federal officials have broken up more than 130 homeless encampments, she said, although some local homeless experts say the number may be inflated.

The Supreme Court last year made it easier for elected officials and law enforcement to punish or arrest homeless people for living outside. Then, in July of this year, the president issued an executive order calling for a nationwide crackdown on urban camping, including massive removal of people living outdoors and forced mental health or drug treatment.

Trump is also pushing an overhaul of homelessness policy and moving to cut funding for permanent housing and services for the homeless. The move would limit the use of a longstanding federal policy called “Housing First,” which provides housing without mandating mental health or addiction treatment. The National Alliance to End Homelessness warns that the move could result in the displacement of at least 170,000 people into permanent housing. The Department of Housing and Urban Development paused the plan on Dec. 8 to make revisions, which it “intends” to do, federal housing officials said.

City officials say they are following the Trump administration's vigorous campaign against homeless people sheltering outside. Under pressure from the White House, local officials said they had become more aggressive in breaking up the camps. Homeless advocates say some of the searches were conducted at night and others with little or no notice to move. City leaders believe they can take a more compassionate approach by offering services and accommodations.

“We've gone from the idea of ​​allowing encampments if they don't violate public health or safety to the position of, 'We don't want you on the streets,'" said Wayne Turnage, deputy mayor of the District of Columbia Health and Human Services, who is overseeing the encampment cleanup. “It’s unsafe, it’s unhealthy and it’s dangerous.” Still, he acknowledges that the encampment clearances can waste the city's resources as caseworkers and street medics struggle to find their clients and patients.

Advocates say the Trump administration is stoking fear and distrust between homeless people and those who help them, while wasting taxpayer dollars that go toward caring for and housing people. However, there are far fewer tents and large camps visible to tourists and residents.

"People found safety in these communities, and service providers were able to find them. Now you have people with guns and flashbulbs who are fleecing homeless people without notice and just throwing stuff away," said Jesse Rabinowitz, campaigns and communications director for the National Homelessness Law Center.

County officials say some people have accepted emergency shelters. But even as the city works to connect people to services and expand shelter capacity, officials acknowledge there are not enough permanent shelters or temporary beds for everyone.

And there will be fewer places to go for people who live outside.

The city focused its homeless funding on families in its fiscal year 2026 budget, funding 336 new permanent housing vouchers. Nevertheless, funding for temporary housing for both families and individuals has been cut and no new permanent housing vouchers have been provided for individuals. That means fewer places to live for single adults, who make up most of the people on the streets. However, city officials said they have added 260 more permanent housing units for homeless individuals or families to their construction pipeline.

Deterioration in health care

The fallout floods local soup kitchens with demand, including Miriam’s Kitchen in Foggy Bottom. The local facility provides hot meals, housing assistance and warm blankets to those in need.

Case workers say it is becoming increasingly difficult to help clients secure identification and other documents needed for housing and other social services.

“I look everywhere but I can’t find people,” said Cyria Knight, a clerk at Miriam’s Kitchen. “Most of my customers went to Virginia.”

It is unclear how much of the county's homeless population has migrated to neighboring Virginia and Maryland communities. In January, months before Trump's crackdown, there were an estimated 9,700 homeless people in the region. Homelessness increased in four of six counties surrounding Washington starting in 2024, while it fell 9% in the county.

"I don't see my patients for a month or more, and when I do, their chronic symptoms are uncontrolled. They've been to the emergency room over and over again and are more likely to be hospitalized," said Anna Graham, a street medicine physician at Unity Health Care, a network of clinics in Washington. “It just sets us back.”

Graham’s team sets up their mobile medical van outside Miriam’s Kitchen at dinner time to make it easier to locate patients.

Willie Taylor, 63, was wondering where to spend the night after grabbing dinner from Miriam. He visited Graham to receive his medications for advanced lung disease, seizures, chronic pain and other health conditions.

He has difficulty walking and needs a wheelchair, which is complicated because he has no permanent address. Taylor and his medical caregivers say his previous wheelchairs were stolen while he was sleeping outside at night. He uses a shopping cart to keep himself stable and walks around all day until nightfall.

On a cold November evening, Graham helped Taylor figure out his daily medications and checked his vitals. The team gave him a warm coat and hand warmers before sending him back outside.

After walking for about 45 minutes, he found a patch of park pavement where he could build a bed out of tarps and sleeping bags.

“My body can’t take this,” Taylor said, preparing to sleep. "The concrete is icy. I'm in so much pain; it's even worse in the cold."

Homeless people die earlier and put more strain on the health care system than homeless people, largely because the illnesses on the streets are not treated and many go to the emergency room when they seek help. Among Medicaid participants, homeless people are estimated to spend $18,764 per year, compared to $7,561 for other participants.

Over at the So Others Might Eat soup kitchen, Tyree Kelley finished his breakfast of a sausage sandwich and hard-boiled eggs. He considered going to an animal shelter. The streets are becoming too dangerous for someone like him, he said, pointing to the presence of police and National Guard. He felt the loss of a camp community that had his back.

He has been to the emergency room at least seven times this year to receive treatment for a broken ankle he suffered in a fall from an electric scooter. The accident caused him to lose his job and his health insurance as a garbage collector, he said. His situation caused him to sink deeper into a depression that began three years ago after his mother died, he said.

Then this year his father and sister died. He began to numb his pain with beer.

"You get so depressed when you're out here," said Kelley, 42. "It's addictive. You start not caring about changing at all."

His depression also led him to seek marijuana. He then smoked a joint laced with fentanyl. The overdose sent him to the hospital for days.

“I actually died and came back,” he said, crediting other homeless people with administering naloxone and saving his life. “I need to get out of this, but I feel so stuck.”

A few blocks west of the White House is a vacant lot that was home to more than a dozen tents earlier this year. Workers in the area sense what they don't always see.

"I was here when everything was being sorted out. A bulldozer came in and all their stuff was thrown into a garbage truck," said Ray Szemborski, who works across the street from the now-vacant property. "People are still homeless. I still see them under the bridge. Sometimes they're at bus stops, sometimes they're just walking around. Their tents are gone, but they're still here."

Sources: