Advocates Rally Against Bill to Jail and Fine Homeless People in DC

Advocates for homeless people are urging Congress to stop a bill that will allow people in Washington, DC to be fined or jailed for sleeping on the streets.

The bill, known as HR 5163, was introduced in the US House of Representatives last week by Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.), as President Donald Trump's militarized takeover of the nation's capital moves into its second month.

Federal law enforcement has already forcibly cleared dozens of homeless encampments in DC under Trump's July executive order, which directed local and federal authorities to fight what it called "endemic vagrancy" in US cities.

Though the Trump administration claims that it has helped to find shelter for those living in the homeless encampments demolished by federal agents, homeless people and advocates in the city told CNN in a report published Monday that federal law enforcement "just told homeless people to move from encampments when they were cleared" and have often taken their possessions, while providing them little assistance and foisting that responsibility onto the city.

Timmons' bill, which is scheduled to be marked up by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, would further the criminalization of homelessness by codifying it into federal law.

It would ban people in the District of Columbia from setting up or "making preparations" to set up temporary structures to sleep outside. It would also make it illegal to sleep inside a car. Those found in violation will be subject to fines up to $500 or up to 30 days in prison.

It is one of several bills Congress will consider that could tighten federal control over Washington, DC. Brianne Nadeau, a member of DC's city council, said it and other bills "will do direct and serious harm to the district" and represent "an unprecedented attack on home rule and on the 700,000-plus residents that call DC home."

According to the most recent data from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, there are about 5,600 people in Washington, DC experiencing sheltered and unsheltered homelessness on a given night.

One recent investigation found that Trump's deployment of the National Guard to DC costs roughly four times as much as it would cost to provide housing to every homeless person in the city.

"Instead of making rent cheaper and helping people make ends meet, Congress is considering a bill that would jail or fine people who have no choice but to sleep outside," said the DC-based National Homelessness Law Center (NHLC). "That's shameful."

The group and others urged voters around the country to contact their representatives and pressure them to oppose the bill.

"Friends outside of DC, we need your help. We have no vote in Congress, yet some people in Congress want to write our laws, and they want DC to lock people up for being homeless," the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless posted on X. "Tell Congress NO."

The NHLC said voters should instead urge Congress to back the Housing Not Handcuffs Act introduced by Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) in June, following the Supreme Court's decision the year before to allow cities to ban homeless people from public spaces.

The Democratic bill would stop law enforcement from arresting and ticketing homeless people for camping on federal lands or asking for donations in public places, which advocates say would force Congress to look to long-term housing investment as a solution to homelessness rather than punitive measures to force people off the streets.

According to a May study published in the Policy Studies Journal, the first to ever look at the effects of homelessness criminalization on a national scale, cities that passed ordinances banning outdoor camping have not only failed to reduce homelessness, but actually saw slight increases in their unhoused populations.

Trump's punitive approach to homelessness is broadly unpopular. In a February YouGov survey conducted with the ACLU, 75% said that homelessness is primarily caused by the lack of affordable housing rather than an issue of crime, while 77% said they believed it would be better solved by housing and expanding social services rather than arrests.

"Imposing a $500 fine or sending an unhoused person to jail for 30 days is cruel and shameful," Nadeau said. "Being unhoused is not a crime."