LA City Council advances 2028 Olympics homelessness plan amid spending and cleanup concerns

Los Angeles leaders are scrambling to get the city’s homelessness crisis under control before the 2028 Olympics — but their latest plan looks like more of the same: a sprawling mix of government programs, taxpayer-funded housing and bureaucratic hand-wringing.

With Los Angeles preparing to welcome the world, City Hall is under pressure to address a homelessness crisis that has continued to grow even as the Trump administration reports a historic nationwide decline.

Los Angeles County recorded an estimated 73,040 homeless residents in 2026, a 1.2% increase, while the city of Los Angeles saw its homeless population jump 3.4% to 45,194, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

The City Council voted Friday to advance a homelessness plan that puts government outreach, housing placements and expanded subsidies at the heart of its preparations for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The motion, introduced by Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, gives city officials 90 days to map out how they’ll address encampments around Olympic venues, transit hubs and major corridors.

Officials must also detail outreach timelines, anticipated response levels and plans to expand housing placements.

But rather than simply ordering a cleanup ahead of Los Angeles’ turn on the world stage, City Hall is embracing a familiar progressive prescription — more government programs, more spending and more layers of coordination.

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The administrative scrambling comes as projections estimate the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games could generate more than $40 billion in economic output across the Greater Los Angeles area while supporting as many as 224,000 jobs, according to a recent analysis prepared for the LA28 Organizing Committee.

Councilwoman Ysabel Jurado, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and chair of the Health and Homelessness Committee, made the council’s priorities clear.

“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,” Jurado said.

The proposal directs officials to explore funding through state encampment resolution funds, philanthropic donations, Measure ULA, LACAHSA and other government resources. It also calls for studying expanded housing subsidies and bringing uninhabitable housing units up to code to speed up placements.