DC Mayor's Inhumane Homeless Policy

The rancid smell of cheap weed in the air. Empty beer and liquor bottles and rotting food on the ground. A rainbow of tents. The bump bump bump pounding of music from several directions. Many groups of people, unwashed, chatting and laughing. You'd be forgiven for thinking this is describing a weekend music festival, when in reality it was the scene at Columbus Circle in front of Washington, D.C.'s iconic Union Station.

For the past two years, visitors who arrived in our nation's capital via rail were greeted not by a breathtaking view of the U.S. Capitol or the National Mall, but rather by a different breathtaking one––of people shooting up, urinating, defecating and engaging in a range of other unsavory and, often, unspeakable acts. This vulgar reality was, and remains, far from isolated. It is replicated in many public parks and grassy spaces across the city––from Columbia Heights to Logan Circle to Navy Yard to Union Market. Even tony Georgetown, long thought to be impenetrable, has also found itself a victim of homelessness and all the licentiousness that comes with it.

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