Montgomery County officials are anticipating an increase in homeless people coming to the county from Washington, D.C., after President Donald Trump placed the city’s police under federal control and deployed hundreds of National Guard members in the District on Monday, county officials said during a Tuesday afternoon press briefing.  

“We’re doing a lot, but our resources aren’t unlimited, and they certainly aren’t sufficient to address the president dumping more homeless people into the county,” County Executive Marc Elrich said during the press briefing. “This pressure from the federal government to make homelessness a crime is not going to help.” 

On Monday, Trump ordered the federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department and deployed 800 National Guard troops under the city’s Home Rule Act, which allows the president to take over the D.C. police for up to 30 days by declaring special emergency conditions exist, according to The Washington Post. Trump cited “violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people,” as reasons for the takeover, despite violent crime within the city being at a 30-year low, according to NPR.  

Trump said on Monday that the federal government was “removing homeless encampments from all over our parks” and wanted to “rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse,” according to ABC News. Trump also said there were “many places” where homeless people could go and that the government was going to “help them as much as you can help,” but has not detailed how, according to ABC news. 

Amid the federalization of D.C. and the targeting of homeless populations, Earl Stoddard, assistant chief administrative officer, said the county was planning for an increase in those who need additional county services. 

Elrich said the county often sees those who need shelters enter the area because they are easily accessible, including Progress Place in downtown Silver Spring. However, Elrich said, shelters are full, and the county already has long lines for other resources such as meals. 

Christine Hong, chief of Services to End and Prevent Homelessness, said she met with service providers for outreach, emergency shelters and other areas, to prepare to respond to the increase.  

“[Providers] are all preparing for possible increase in people we may see in need of services,” Hong said. “What I’ve asked of them is to track the number of people who are coming from the district, so we can have a sense of the need and assess that, so that Montgomery County can be prepared with a response.” 

However, Stoddard said the full impact of D.C.’s federalization is unclear.  

“We’ve gotten a lot of questions from both our residents who work or spend time in the district about what it means for them as well as what it means along our border lines,” Stoddard said. “And the reality is, we just don’t know.”  

Stoddard said county officials had a call with the Maryland Governor’s office and Prince George’s County elected officials on Tuesday. County officials are in a “wait and see posture” because it is not clear what will change in D.C. and what will “spill over” into other jurisdictions, Stoddard said. 

In terms of policing and relationships with D.C. police, Stoddard said that it was their impression that no vast overhauls to policy or areas of cooperation Montgomery County has with Metropolitan police, such as task forces for stolen vehicles, have occurred. 

“Again, we’re 24 hours into this,” Stoddard said during the briefing. “We have not seen dramatic shifts that have us hyper concerned about whether we’re going to be able to maintain our ongoing, day to day, operational working relationships.” 

Stoddard said they were told the interim federal administrator for D.C. police, Terry Cole, told the D.C. police that he was there to “make things better” and was asking how the department operated. 

“We didn’t get the impression from our counterparts that there was a come in and scorched earth approach to procedure, policy and practice,” Stoddard said. “We just don’t know what we don’t know. … We’re really just sort of trying to get a pulse of what’s happening on the ground.”