Few people are talking about the fact homeless encampments litter the nation’s capital, nor is President Joe Biden being blamed by the media for the “Bidenvilles” that have cropped up on his watch. This is even as Bidenomics has hiked inflation and pushed many onto the streets.
During the early 1930s, Democrats labeled shantytowns across America comprised of homeless people “Hoovervilles” after President Herbert Hoover.
In the 1980s, Democrats lambasted President Ronald Reagan for homelessness and still do.
Reagan addressed homelessness, but Biden has never uttered a single word about homelessness in the U.S. nationally or in the nation’s capital.
Homelessness Increases in Washington, D.C. Under Joe Biden
“For the first time since 2016, more people in D.C. are experiencing homelessness this year than in the prior year, according to the 2023 Point-in-Time (PIT) Count results, released in early May. This year’s PIT Count reported 389 families and 3,750 individuals were experiencing homelessness, compared with 344 families and 3,403 individuals in 2022,” Street Sense Media, a D.C. publication for the homeless community, wrote in May.
“Overall, D.C. saw a 12% increase in homelessness from the previous year, but a 23% decrease since 2020, the city’s most recent pre-pandemic PIT Count.”
The increasing cost of living has contributed to this epidemic of homelessness.
“I didn’t want to be stuck out here,” a former high school valedictorian-turned-homeless man Michael Jeffery told Washignton’s NBC affiliate. “I don’t wish this on anybody, to be stuck out here.
Jeffrey continued, “We don’t want pity … A lot of people in this situation is just like me. We want better; we want more.”
Tent Cities Proliferate Around Washington
Washington, D.C. is unique among cities because it is a federal city. City parks belong to the U.S. Department of the Interior unlike in other cities across America where they belong to the municipality.
Tent cities became ubiquitous during the pandemic. They could be seen everywhere people looked in the nation’s capital, ranging from public parks to sidewalks. The number of encampments soared after the Centers for Disease Control issued a statement urging them to be left in place.
“Clearing encampments can cause people to disperse throughout the community and … increases the potential for infectious disease spread,” the CDC explained.
As of last Fall, there were estimated to be 120 tent cities across the nation’s capital. They can be found in public parks where camping is not permitted, under underpasses, and on empty lots.
“It’s wicked and it’s medieval,” Robert Westover, 59, a longtime resident exasperated by the staggering surge, who was interviewed by The New York Post said. “We’re really letting people suffer on the street like animals? Somehow that’s progressive?”
Visitors report being in shock seeing the homeless everywhere they turn in the nation’s capital.
“I’m just in shock,” said Devin McCants, 28, a tourist from Atlanta, told The New York Post. “There are tents everywhere here … it’s crazy.”
Republican Legislator Threatens D.C., Home Rule
Things have gotten so bad that one Republican member of Congress is proposing legislation to abolish the D.C. Home Rule Act.
“In the first 5 days of August, D.C. saw 13 homicides. The Nation’s capital has been overrun with violent crime, drugs, theft, homelessness, and riots,” Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., said in a statement. “The Constitution places the authority and responsibility of DC administration with the Congress — not with a D.C. Mayor or a D.C. City Council. Congress needs to reclaim its Constitutional authority and make our Nation’s capital safe again, which is why I’m introducing the Seat of Government Act to repeal the D.C. Home Rule Act.”
Democrats only see homelessness as an issue when they can score political points, so they will not criticize Joe Biden or take D.C.’s Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser to task for her failed policies.
John Rossomando is a defense and counterterrorism analyst and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
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