Call or email Jeff Reinbold, Superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks and tell him to stop the eviction: 202-245-4661; jeff_reinbold@nps.gov
For the last few years, cities and states across the United States have issued encampment raids against unhoused people. Today – DC joins this harmful and white supremacist strategy, forcibly removing tenants from McPherson Square. True Colors United is vehemently against encampment raids and all it ensues – criminalization, further displacement, loss of possessions, and much more, none of which will result in ending homelessness.
This raid comes two months earlier than expected, without any real support or rapid housing solutions. These raids directly conflict with both the USICH’s strategic plan and the Biden administration’s federal plan to end homelessness and place people in direct harm. Moreover, encampment raids not only further criminalize, traumatize, and dehumanize individuals. It also grows distrust between the individual and systems, which results in people hiding their housing status and resisting services long-term. The real objective of the encampment raid is to sustain capitalism and to hide the truth about DC’s lack of resources for unhoused people and is NOT an act of protection.
In fact, this is an act of violence toward people experiencing homelessness, particularly Black and LGBTQ community members. We know that 40% of people experiencing homelessness in the United States are Black, a direct result of decades of strategic policy, laws, and acts of forcible displacement rooted in white supremacy. We know that LGBTQ young people are 120% more likely to experience housing instability, due in large part by failures of the state to meet their most basic needs. By choosing to raid McPherson Square without providing the necessary resources to those that are unhoused this becomes a life-or-death scenario disproportionately affecting Black and LGBTQ folks.
True Colors United urges the federal government to immediately halt all plans to forcibly remove tenants of McPherson Square, to make emergency resources available, and to provide safe, individual housing to anyone experiencing unsheltered homelessness. It’s critical that young people experiencing homelessness be included in these efforts.
We affirm the right to protest this.
In Solidarity,
Signed:
Timothy Hale
Selina Lee
Jeff Katz
Phoebe VanCleefe
Aleya Jones
Angel Brown
Morgan Jenkins, Ed.D
Kahlib Barton
Jordan Wiggins
Christa Price
JB Burton
Coco Wheeler
Twiggy Pucci Garçon