Attacks on the Unsheltered: How Trump Admin Targets Unhoused People in DC & Elsewhere

Date & Time: Aug 28, 2025 at 12 PM PT (3 PM ET)

When Donald Trump federalized the Washington, DC police and sent troops into the streets of our nation’s capital, he also destroyed encampments of unhoused people at a time when the rates of unhoused people are increasing across the country.

As part of the Trump takeover of DC policing, multiple encampments of unhoused people have now been destroyed. President Trump also issued an Executive Order, “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets,” that would deny federal funding to localities that do not enforce anti-vagrancy policies or that utilize “harm reduction” approaches to substance use, and promotes civil (involuntary) commitment of people identified as having mental health or substance use problems.

--What is happening to unsheltered people in Washington, DC?

--What are the likely or actual outcomes of the criminalization of unsheltered people, in DC and elsewhere?

This is a vitally important issue. One measure, the single-night count of people without housing in 2024 was 771,480, 18 percent higher than the year before. The number of people in families who were unhoused jumped by a startling 39.4 percent in that one year.

The Trump solution is to criminalize people without housing. This webinar will hear from experts who can tell you what’s going on now in DC, and what approaches here and around the country have helped or harmed unsheltered people, and what is really needed now.


SPEAKERS - We’ll be joined by national experts, including:

--Moderated by Deborah Weinstein, Coalintion on Human Needs (CHN)

--Donald Whitehead, Jr., Executive Director, National Coalition for the Homeless

--Ramina Davidson, Vice President of Field Strategy and Innovation, National Low Income Housing Coalition

--Marcy Thompson, Vice President of Programs and Policy, National Alliance to End Homelessness

--Barbara DiPietro, Senior Director of Policy, National Health Care for the Homeless Council


This webinar will be recorded; all registrants will receive the recording and accompanying resources, so sign up even if you’re not available at noon PT/3 PM ET on Thursday, 8/28/2025.