D.C. is taking a survey of its unhoused population on Thursday night, in what officials are calling an unsheltered census count.
It’s being conducted to get an idea of how many people are living in tents and on the streets, following recent efforts to clear encampments and President Donald Trump’s threats to send unhoused people far away from the city.
Multiple encampments have been cleared in recent weeks under Trump’s order to clean up the city.
District outreach workers will be counting the number of tents, the number of people in those tents, and how many people are unhoused and living unsheltered on the streets.
“The purpose of the count is to make sure we know exactly who is experiencing homelessness, so we can target our resources to best meet the needs of the community,” said Rachel Pierre, acting director of D.C.’s Department of Human Services.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, during Wednesday afternoon’s press conference, emphasized that the large tent cities once seen in the District are gone. Many of those living in the tents are scattered, but oftentimes, they’re in public spaces.
“We have a relatively small encampment problem in D.C. It, however, is highly visible,” Bowser said.
City leaders say more than 80 people had entered shelters in recent weeks. They say that’s the goal: Get unhoused people inside, and offer services such as housing and mental health services.
During its annual January count of the unsheltered population, it consisted of 800 people.
“It could be anywhere between 400 and 600 folks who could be unsheltered tonight. But again, this is a big range. So the count today will give us really an idea of how our interventions have been working,” Pierre said.
The District has made more shelter space available.
Leaders say they do have the capacity to bring in anyone who wants to come inside, but there are those who refuse to do so.
“It’s the hardest part, to engage folks who may choose not to engage,” said Pierre. “For a multitude of reasons. It could be folks who are experiencing severe and persistent mental illness, it could be people who are addicted or people who just don’t trust the system.”
Once the count, which begins at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, is finished, officials say they’ll have a better idea of where people are and how to get them resources to meet their needs.
Unlike the annual count conducted in January, officials say there will be no interviews, and no one’s personal information will be collected.
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