by Lauren Hill ‘22

The Coordinated Assistance and Resources for Encampments (CARE) program was recently put in place in D.C by Mayor Bowser and the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services. The program is being used to find housing for homeless D.C residents and clean up 3 major encampments made by these individuals. 

While this program may seem like a positive step toward helping a large population of people who are living on the streets, when looked at closely it is ultimately damaging for those involved. Temporary housing is only granted to individuals on a case by case basis, and when Deputy Mayor Wayne Turnage was asked to explain how the decisions were made, he could not offer a direct answer. For those who are denied housing, they will be cleared out of their encampments, which they may have lived in for several years and forced to go somewhere else. It is clear that the city’s main focus is getting rid of the tents as quickly as possible no matter what the consequences are. This became abundantly clear when a tent, which was still being occupied by a homeless man, was picked up and dropped by a bulldozer. After the incident on October 4th,  the clearing of this one encampment was paused. However, the Mayor needs to use this event as a reason to reconsider the CARE program, and reevaluate how to truly help homeless residents in D.C.