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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Kirstin Garriss in Washington

‘It’s not illegal to be homeless’: disquiet as Trump crews clear DC encampments

A man sits outside and charges his phone.
Unhoused Washingtonian David Harold Pugh on 14 August 2025. Photograph: Kirstin Garriss

For the past eight months, David Harold Pugh has found his “spot” outside the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Library in Washington DC. He keeps all his belongings, including a guitar, tied up together on a two-wheeled buggy.

“This is shelter. It’s a safe place where I can put my buggy up against the wall, and it’s up against that beam so nobody can roll it,” said Pugh. “I roll it on its back, and then I sleep alongside of it, so nobody can get it without me waking up.”

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