Los Angeles wants to get its homelessness crisis under control before the world arrives for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. But as city leaders begin planning how to manage encampments near competition venues, a difficult question hangs over the effort: will the Games accelerate lasting housing solutions, or simply push unhoused residents out of sight?

The Los Angeles City Council has taken an initial step. Last week, it approved a motion from Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson directing senior officials and relevant departments to produce a homelessness plan within 90 days. The report must cover outreach, encampment procedures, housing placements, funding, and an implementation timeline.

Councilwoman Ysabel Jurado, who chairs the Health and Homelessness Committee, said the Olympics should prompt the city to confront the crisis rather than hide it.

“Instead of pushing unhoused neighbors to the wayside outside of public view, we can start taking meaningful, proactive measures to confront the crisis with newfound urgency, accountability, and coordination,” she said.

The 2026 count put homelessness in the city at 45,194 people, a 3.4% increase, while Los Angeles County recorded an estimated 73,040, up 1.2%. A preliminary study by researchers at UCLA and USC estimated that security perimeters extending one mile around Olympic venues could affect about 5,975 unsheltered people. Of those, 5,501 were within the city limits.

The estimate is not a final displacement count: it uses a preliminary security-zone scenario and excludes Pasadena, Long Beach, and Glendale; the Olympic Village at UCLA; the Media Village at USC; and major transport corridors. The study included people sleeping rough, in makeshift shelters, and in tents.

Past Olympic crackdowns raise displacement concerns

The concern is not simply where people might go, but whether the city can offer somewhere stable for them to go. Los Angeles has already spent more than $391 million on outgoing Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Safe program, which moved roughly 6,500 people into interim accommodation. Yet about 42% later returned to the streets, underlining the difficulty of turning temporary placements into permanent housing.

Bass had previously promised that Los Angeles would not copy the approach taken by some Olympic host cities. In 2024, she said the city’s strategy would remain “housing people first” and rejected the idea of putting unhoused residents on buses and sending them elsewhere. Ahead of the 1984 Olympics, however, police used mounted patrols to clear unhoused people from downtown areas around venues. Civil rights advocates fear a repeat as the 2028 Games approach. The crackdown also intensified aggressive policing of Black and Latino youth, a legacy that continues to shape fears about how security operations could affect vulnerable communities during the next Games.

That history has made the experiences of other host cities a warning. In Paris, authorities carried out operations against informal settlements, tent encampments, and squats in the run-up to the 2024 Games. A June 2024 report by the collective Le Revers de la Médaille estimated that 12,545 people had been relocated over the previous 13 months. Those affected included migrants, asylum seekers, families, and people experiencing homelessness. Campaigners said some were sent to temporary accommodation in other French cities, disrupting support networks without guaranteeing longer-term housing.

Los Angeles’ next mayor will inherit the task of finding a more durable answer. Nithya Raman, who defeated Bass and is due to take office in December, has made homelessness a central issue. She has pledged to reduce the number of people sleeping in tents and encampments by at least 50% before the Olympics while auditing homelessness spending, expanding rental vouchers, and reducing reliance on costly hotel and motel placements.

Raman has also proposed expanding shelter and housing options, reviewing stalled housing projects, and sending medical teams into encampments to connect people with mental health and addiction treatment. Her plan would aim to help people move into long-term housing or care within 90 days. She has criticized aspects of Inside Safe and wants greater oversight of the money directed to homelessness programs.

The region’s shortage of affordable housing makes it difficult to move tens of thousands of people into stable homes, while the Games could put pressure on the temporary accommodation system. UCLA law professor emeritus Gary Blasi has warned that motel owners may prefer Olympic visitors to publicly funded placements, making hotel-based programs harder to sustain. He has argued that simply expanding existing approaches will not be enough.

The debate also reflects a wider pattern. Olympic host cities have repeatedly faced accusations of displacing vulnerable communities: Rio de Janeiro saw more than 70,000 people displaced from favelas ahead of the 2016 Games, while campaigners in Paris raised similar concerns ahead of the 2024 Games. In Los Angeles, advocates worry that increased security and pressure to present a polished image could outweigh the needs of residents already living on the margins.

The council’s 90-day report may set out how officials intend to respond, but a plan on paper will not resolve the crisis. The real measure of success will be whether unhoused people move into secure, lasting homes – not whether encampments disappear from the Olympic spotlight.