A Silent Threat Looming Over Our Unhoused Neighbors: What History Can Tell Us About What To Expect Before The Los Angeles 2028 Olympics
Image Description: Drawing of Los Angeles city infrastructure to the left and a houseless encampment being cleared away to the right. The two sides are separated by a broken line and the five Olympic rings.
In the summer of 2028, Los Angeles (LA) will host the Olympics for the first time since 1984. For many of us, the games are still out-of-sight, out-of-mind — but their effects are already impossible to ignore for the city’s unhoused population.
It’s no secret that a city’s infrastructure typically undergoes major transformations before hosting the Olympics to accommodate the millions of people that the “mega event” attracts. LA has had plans for urban redevelopment in place as early as 2019 in preparation for the games. The subsequent initiatives have taken shape as plans for new public transportation, more walkable streets, and revamped tourist attractions. However, paired with this renovation — and every city’s pre-Olympic renovation — is something more sinister yet often overlooked.
Before last year’s Olympics in Paris, the French police forcibly removed hundreds of people from the streets, the majority of whom were African migrants and unhoused people. They were left uncertain of what lay ahead after being packed into buses, relocated to the fringes of the city, and given temporary shelter. Before the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, over 70,000 people were displaced, many of them working-class, unhoused, or housing insecure. The 1988 Seoul Olympics intensified the criminalization of unhoused people, contributing to thousands being held in a state-sanctioned concentration camp. These are among the most egregious examples, but displacement and efforts to “socially cleanse” host cities have corrupted society leading up to nearly every Olympics.
Cities do not want tourists and Olympic attendees to witness anything they might deem “unclean” or “unpleasant” during their stay, but this desire comes without any real efforts to improve housing accessibility, social services, and overall conditions for unhoused folks.
LA has a long, ongoing history of displacement and houselessness. The land was originally inhabited by Indigenous communities, including the Tongva people, before being colonized by Spanish settlers. Centuries later, the city went through various urban renewal and highway construction projects that forcibly displaced hundreds of Black and brown families over time. Contemporarily, the city’s housing crisis and issues of gentrification continue to compound the infrastructural issues underlying the houselessness crisis.
Other host cities that witnessed high levels of displacement pre-Olympics have faced unique issues, and LA is not exempt from this. Los Angeles and other U.S. cities’ houselessness crises are largely marked by substance use and mental health issues, which are perpetuated by the inaccessibility of the U.S. healthcare system. The landscape in LA necessitates an approach to the looming displacement that emphasizes long-term care and housing. Other host cities that witnessed high levels of displacement pre-Olympics have faced unique issues, and LA is not exempt from this. Los Angeles and other U.S. cities’ houselessness crises are largely marked by substance use and mental health issues, which are perpetuated by the inaccessibility of the U.S. healthcare system. The landscape in LA necessitates an approach to the looming displacement that emphasizes long-term care and housing.
With the 2028 Olympics en route, LA Mayor Karen Bass assured Angelinos that there will be no bussing of unhoused people out of the city in preparation for the games. However, bussing is just one aspect of displacement strategies used by cities and law enforcement. Other tactics have already begun in full force.
The mayor’s primary strategy to tackle houselessness in preparation for the Olympics is rooted in a program called Inside Safe, which clears encampments and relocates people to temporary housing. Although the program boasts its aim to permanently end houselessness for those it interfaces with, its lack of permanent housing supply and other logistical issues have forced many people back on the street. The program and others like it additionally do not have the infrastructure to meet the needs of the unhoused population, including mental health and addiction services.
Los Angeles’s existing issue of systemic displacement has been escalated to a uniquely dire state in the face of recent political and environmental events. The fires in and around the Palisades and Pasadena this January displaced an estimated 150,000 people, many of whom now struggle to find adequate housing after losing their homes. LA County officials have proclaimed a ‘State of Emergency,’ which is still in place. Another major issue underpinning the increased struggles faced by unhoused communities during this time is California Governor Gavin Newsom’s orders to clear encampments throughout California. These directives once again raise the question of where the displaced unhoused people will go without the state providing large-scale affordable housing and other public services aimed at protecting people from experiencing houselessness.
Displacement of the unhoused is not the only problem that Angelinos will need to consider in anticipation of 2028’s games. In all host cities, the Olympics are often a driving force of other related issues, including gentrification, environmental degradation, and the eviction and displacement of local tenants. At the root of these problems, beyond just the Olympics, is local infrastructure and governance.
It is imperative to hold key actors, including Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom, accountable in LA’s ongoing development. Officials and community members must work together to minimize potential harm stemming from a long-held tradition. Ways to get involved include contacting Los Angeles representatives and submitting public comments to meetings concerning development and governance.
While long-term solutions for LA’s unhoused community will require systemic change, much of the interim support and relief for these communities will rely on mutual aid efforts and help from their neighbors. Mutual Aid LA Network, Skid Row People’s Market, and LA Street Care & Mutual Aid are among the many initiatives working to help our unhoused neighbors through increasingly challenging conditions in the city. Now might be a better time to get involved than ever.
