Two years out from the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Los Angeles officials say security requirements could displace hundreds of unhoused people living around competition venues during the summer of 2028. But there's no plan for how those people will be relocated, where they'll go, or who will pay for it.
Los Angeles has one of the largest unsheltered populations in the nation, which as of the latest count rose to 49,002 unsheltered people countywide. That includes people living near prominent Olympics locations like the Venice Beach Boardwalk, Sepulveda Basin and Exposition Park.
The Metro L.A. area, which includes venues Crypto Arena, Peacock Theater and the Convention Center, saw its unsheltered population increase by about 20% this year.
Security requirements could kick people out
Exactly how many people might be forced out around venues is not yet clear. The plans will come down to security perimeters — zones around event sites established by the U.S. Secret Service.
Brandon Dean, the chief of special operations for the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, told LAist security perimeters will be divided into "red" zones directly around venues where people and vehicles will be screened before entering, and "yellow" zones marking a larger outer perimeter. Dean said he expected that unhoused people would be able to remain in yellow areas, but not red zones.
A spokesperson for the Secret Service told LAist that the agency hasn’t yet determined the exact areas that will need heightened security. But early conversations indicate they could be expansive. Carter Hewgley, chief strategy officer for L.A. County’s Department of Homeless Services and Housing, said his office had been told to plan for perimeters as wide as a mile.
" By our current needs assessment, there's about 1,600 unsheltered people that are in the areas around the projected venues that could be impacted," Hewgley said.
Hewgley said plans are likely to change as the Olympics get closer. Still, the number lays out the scope of the challenge for Los Angeles, where homelessness is an endemic crisis despite billions of dollars spent combatting the problem. Since 2016, one year before L.A. secured the bid to host the 2028 Olympics, homelessness in the city is up 59%.
No single authority for addressing homelessness
To address homelessness around Olympic venues on a tight timeline, officials at the cash-strapped city and county say they need money and a road map. Both don't yet exist. The Secret Service is in charge of security, but there is no single authority coordinating or responsible for addressing homelessness during the Olympics.
Gita O’Neill, interim CEO of the embattled Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, told the city council ad-hoc committee on the Olympics recently that organizers should establish an interagency task force to manage how homelessness would be handled ahead of and during the Games.
City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson has also introduced a motion at city council requesting a report on how L.A. plans to clear encampments around Olympic locations. That motion also asks for details on locating housing for people and how the city can recover costs.
"If we've got a place where we know there's an encampment and we know there's going to be an activity there, how do we do encampment resolution? How do we make sure it's done in a humane way? And how do we make sure it's paid for?" Harris-Dawson told LAist.
Meanwhile, critics say emerging plans for unhoused people during the Olympics are short-sighted, when Los Angeles needs to prioritize permanent rather than temporary housing.
"We always see with big events this kind of enhanced enforcement," said John Raphling, an organizer with the Los Angeles Community Action Network, a group that advocates for people experiencing homelessness. "And it's never made up for with an enhanced effort to actually solve the problem… through keeping people in their permanent homes and developing more affordable housing and preserving the existing affordable housing."
Funding is unclear
In 1984, the last time L.A. hosted the Olympics, police officers on horseback scattered people living on the streets of Skid Row ahead of the Games. One police captain told the L.A. Times it was an effort to "sanitize" the city.
L.A. officials this time around say they're committed to clearing encampments and people only if they can offer them at least temporary housing. But as of this month, there is no additional funding for such a project.
That means local officials are seeking funds for the Olympics specifically.
Carter Hewgley, with L.A. County, said officials have applied for nearly $93 million in state funding for "encampment resolution" around Olympic venues. He said that some of that money would follow the county's Pathway Home model, which clears encampments and brings individuals into interim housing. Hewgley said funds would also go towards direct financial assistance to help move people out of interim housing to create more space for an influx of new people that may be coming from around sports venues.
" We are signaling to the state that this is a large event with large impacts and consequences and will require a large amount of resources," Hewgley said.
City officials are also asking private Olympics organizing committee LA28 to help pick up the tab. According to an agreement with the city, Olympics organizers are expected to pay for Games-related city services that go beyond what's "normal and customary."
But a recent human rights report produced by LA28 deferred to city officials on homelessness. That strategy document, submitted to the City Council, said that LA28 would coordinate with local officials and providers who will be supporting unhoused people impacted by the Olympics. It also pledged to notify authorities as early as possible if an unhoused person needs to be relocated due to the Games.
City Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, who chairs the budget and finance committee, questioned LA28's senior human rights advisor Julieta Valls Noyes about those plans at a recent council committee meeting.
"Will LA28 ensure that the city or homelessness outreach organizations have the resources to engage unhoused residents who may be living inside a venue area or security perimeter?" Yaroslavsky asked. "Because, you know, we're not going to be able to do this on top of what we're already doing without help."
Noyes responded saying that she believed the mass displacement of unhoused people that has occurred at past Olympics would not be as much of an issue for Los Angeles because organizers are relying on existing facilities rather than building new ones.
Others aren't so sure. Randall Kuhn, a UCLA professor who runs a monthly survey of Los Angeles County's unhoused population, said he's worried about parts of downtown that are dense with tents and people being caught up in Olympics security plans.
"What do they intend to do? What is the plan?" Kuhn said. "Is there an intention to provide any kind of genuine pipeline of care, a genuine pipeline to permanent housing? Or is this just gonna be sweeps that just push people just outside the perimeter?"
Kuhn's working on including questions about how people are feeling about the Olympics in his monthly survey. But two years out, he says many people living on the streets in L.A. are just focused on survival.
