WASHINGTON — District officials cleared a homeless encampment near the Kennedy Center on Thursday morning, marking a strategic move by local authorities to get ahead of an expected federal government crackdown on homeless encampments across the city.

The site, located between the Kennedy Center and the Lincoln Memorial, was dismantled with just one day’s notice — a sharp departure from the District's usual seven-day warning protocol. Officials say the urgency was driven by concerns over safety and the likelihood that the federal government would otherwise move in swiftly without the same social service support.

“We knew this site would be one of the key sites the federal government would close,” said Wayne Turnage, D.C.’s Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services. “In our judgment, it

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