Temporary camp, in the heart of which dozens of homeless people took refuge Washingtonjust 300 meters from White Housewas evacuated today by the authorities.

Watched by dozens of reporters and other bystanders in suits and ties, federal employees in white uniforms and face shields pushed makeshift tents and personal items into garbage trucks in the now-fenced-off McPherson Square.

“The police knocked on our door around 6 am,” said Daniel Kingeri, one of the last homeless people to refuse to leave the park, which has become a symbol of poverty in a city of power and elite. Many others have already packed up and left.

A 61-year-old barefoot man with a long gray beard claims he was the first to camp in the park about three years ago. The “camp” has grown into one of the largest in the city, largely because other camps elsewhere have been evacuated in the meantime.

In November, authorities announced that they planned to evacuate MacPherson Square by April. After all, today they have moved to evict the homeless “for health and safety reasons and because camp expansion has jeopardized the effectiveness of social services assistance,” the National Park Service (NPS) said in a statement.

Daniel Kingeri told AFP he didn’t want to go to a homeless shelter because someone told him it was there”the situation is more violent compared to this park, where there has never been violence.”

From early morning, “we saw a lot of people who were scared, who were worried because they didn’t know where they were going,” said Amanda Michiko Andere, director of an organization helping the homeless. “We should be ashamed that on the street next to the White House, on the street of the government, which said housing is its priority, failed to close the camp humanely, that is, taking these people under the roof,” he added. .

The city services claim that they offered the homeless from the square various options for temporary relocation, but they refused them.

According to the latest available data, there were about 5,000 homeless people in Washington in 2021.

Source: APE-MPE-AFP.