DC Worker Bulldozes Homeless Tent At Encampment With Man Still Inside

WASHINGTON, DC — A D.C. worker clearing out a homeless encampment with heavy machinery in Northeast D.C. on Monday picked up a tent with a man still inside.

The man was taken to the hospital after being picked up by a Bobcat front-end loader. The incident happened while the encampment was being cleared out from underneath a rail bridge on L Street in the NoMa neighborhood, WTOP reported. The man is expected to recover from his injuries.

The heavy machinery was being used to push tents and their contents over a 3-foot-tall metal rail that separated the road from the sidewalk where the tents were set up. As the bulldozer went into the tent, the man could be heard screaming.

After the incident, Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau noted that she has witnessed a lot of trauma when the city clears encampments.

“If the resident had not been able to communicate their presence, they could have died,” Nadeau said in a tweet. “We are literally talking about life and death when working with encampments.”

The clearing of homeless encampments is part of a pilot program by the city to get homeless people into stable housing.

"The goal all along has been to get housing for our neighbors living on the street — stable, safe, warm housing," Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen said in a statement, according to WUSA9. "We should be celebrating people moving off the street into apartments, but what happened today was completely unacceptable."

"And the team responsible needs to understand what happened and how we can humanely make this transition," Allen said. "We have the funds set aside to end homelessness for many, many people. Our unhoused neighbors deserved better than what happened today."

Wayne Turnage, D.C.’s deputy mayor for health and human services, told WTOP that his office will work hard to avoid picking up tents, using heavy machinery, with people still inside them.

Meanwhile, on Monday night, one person was found dead after a tent at a homeless encampment in Northwest D.C. caught fire, according to D.C. Fire and EMS.

Fire and rescue crews were dispatched to the 400 block of O Street Northwest shortly before 11 p.m. Monday. When they arrived, they found a tent on fire. Personnel extinguished the fire and found a person dead inside the tent.