A camp of several dozen homeless people established in the heart of the American capital Washington, about 300 meters from the White House, was evacuated on Wednesday by the authorities.
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Under the gaze of many journalists and onlookers in suits and ties, agents in white overalls and sanitary masks pushed makeshift tents and personal belongings into garbage trucks on a now fenced McPherson Square, at the foot of the ministries of the first world power.
“The police showed up around 6 a.m.,” Daniel Kingery, one of the last homeless to refuse to leave the park, which has become a symbol of the social misery of a city embodying the city, told AFP. power and elites. Many others “picked up their things and left.”
This 61-year-old man with a long white beard, without shoes on his feet, claims to have been the first, about three years ago, to camp in this public garden, before it became one of the most important in the city. capital, particularly due to the evacuation of other camps elsewhere.
In November, the authorities had announced plans to evacuate McPherson Square in April, an operation finally brought forward to Wednesday “for health and safety reasons and because the growth of the camp threatened the effectiveness of the assistance of the social services, according to a statement from the federal National Parks Service (NPS), responsible for many of the capital’s green spaces.
Daniel Kingery told AFP that he did not want to go to homeless shelters, “which I have been told are more violent than this park has ever been”.
” Shame “
From the early morning, “we saw many people being afraid, worried about where to go, (because they) don’t know where they are going” now, told AFP from the edge of the square Amanda Misiko Andere, director of the association Funders Together to end homelessness.
“We should be ashamed that one block from the White House, one block from a government that said it was a priority for housing, they couldn’t close an encampment in a humane way, that’s i.e. with a path to accommodation,” she added.
The services of the city with a very strong Democratic majority claim to have offered temporary rehousing solutions to some of the homeless in the square, who have sometimes refused them.
“Two people, who refused any social assistance offered by (the municipality of Washington), ultimately refused to leave the park and were arrested,” the National Park Service said in a statement that evening. AFP, adding that they were later released.
According to the latest figures available, some 5,000 people were homeless in Washington in 2021, a rather declining figure even if the camps have multiplied.
Many large American metropolises, notably Los Angeles and San Francisco in California, face large homeless populations in their centers, a difficult file for the elected Democrats at their head to manage.
In an editorial on Friday, the Washington Post, the capital’s leading daily, said it was “time to evacuate” McPherson Square.
It will be “restored, and the goal will be to reopen to the public by the summer,” said the NPS in its press release.