Homeless encampment at McPherson Square to be cleared nearly two months early

A homeless encampment occupying D.C.’s McPherson Square, originally slated to be cleared on April 12, will now be cleared by the National Park Service on Feb. 15 after a request from the D.C. Deputy Mayor of Health and Human Services.

In the past year, U.S. Park Police reported 30 arrests and three drug overdose fatalities at the McPherson encampment.

The most recent death on park property occurred on Jan. 10, with another person found dead close to park property on Jan. 21, according to a letter from National Mall and Memorial Parks Superintendent Jeffrey Reinbold to Deputy Mayor of Health and Human Services Wayne Turnage.

The encampment of about 70 persons was initially slated to be cleared last October, but was pushed back to April to avoid hypothermia season. Recent incidents spurred Mr. Turnage to request a closure date of Feb. 1 from NPS.

NPS “moved the date at the request of DMHHS because high levels of illegal drug and other criminal activity impedes social services’ outreach and endangers social services providers, mental health clinicians, unsheltered individuals, and the public,” spokesperson Mike Litterst said in a statement, according to Fox 5.

In the letter, Mr. Reinbold wrote that “The NPS is not a social service agency and relies on the District and its contracted social service providers for expertise and recommendations on unsheltered encampments.”

The new Feb. 15 clearance deadline will not have a major effect on the efforts to move the homeless into housing.

“An additional month of engagement will not result in a meaningful increase in the number of individuals moved into housing,” Mr. Reinbold’s letter reads, adding that many of the indigent individuals refused accommodation.

Now, the park will be cleared in the middle of winter. Although NPS provided more than two weeks’ notice to the homeless there in accordance with D.C. law, activists and the squatters are worried about being sent back out onto the streets.

“We are aghast, upset, pissed, blindsided, and more. We know NPS hates us, but to find out that it is DHS/Wayne Turnage who requested that NPS kick us out earlier is devastating,” a group representing the encampment’s residents, going by the handle @McPhHomeless on Twitter, wrote to DCist in a statement.