Every night longtime Washington, DC, resident Jeff Padgett packs up his two chihuahuas, his sketch pad and other belongings in a black canvas rolling cart to cross the bridge over the Potomac River and disappear into the woods in Virginia.

Padgett, 60, has been living unhoused on the streets of the nation’s capital for about eight years. But for now, he sleeps elsewhere.

“I don’t stay in the district anymore at night,” Padgett said, describing his daily routine of picking up meals at the Georgetown Ministry Center before hightailing it to Virginia. To avoid getting “harassed, or locked up, or given an ultimatum,” he says, “I’ll just keep pushing out.”

The White House says more than 50 homeless encampments have been cleared “by multi-agency teams” since President Donald Trump’s law enfor

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