Carrying backpacks and small children, hundreds of people sleeping on the streets of Paris climbed aboard buses surrounded by armed police on Thursday, the latest group of migrants and homeless people to be driven out of the city ahead of the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics.
The group of largely African migrants headed for the fringes of the city in buses paid for by the French government and into temporary lodging until at least the end of the Games. While some living on the streets were happy to have a roof over their heads for the night, few knew what was laid ahead once the world’s eyes were off Paris.
“It’s like poker. “I don’t know where I will go, or how long I will stay,” said Nikki, a 47-year-old homeless Parisian who asked that her last name not be used to protect her privacy.
French authorities have been clearing out migrant and homeless encampments for months leading up to the massive global sports event, which is an important moment for President Emmanuel Macron at a time of political turmoil. But the Games have also faced criticism as Parisians have complained about everything from elevated public transit fees to government spending on cleaning up the Seine River for swimming instead of investing in the social safety net.
What does this mean for LA as they host the 2028 Olympics?, asks the Better Angels of L.A. organization.
The countdown to the 2028 Olympics has begun, and while it’s thrilling for LA to host such a monumental event, we must consider the impact it will have on our community of those experiencing homelessness.
“We do have a problem with homeless Angelenos, and so we want to make sure that we get everybody housed because we do not want the world to come to Los Angeles and see people living on our streets,” Bass said.
Will we see more shelters, or will people be pushed out to the fringes of LA County?
To solve this problem, it requires more than hiding the problem, says this organization.
Mayor Karen Bass recognizes the problems L.A. has. in these moments.
Los Angeles is having to work on itself, to look inward and confront its most pressing everyday struggles — from a homelessness crisis as housing prices continue rising to a streak of violent crimes aboard buses and trains this year.
“We do have a problem with homeless Angelenos, and so we want to make sure that we get everybody housed because we do not want the world to come to Los Angeles and see people living on our streets,” Bass said.
For its part, the Better Angels organization shared this message on its social networks.
“Every Angeleno knows that homelessness is our number one issue. While Governor Newsom’s executive order might seem satisfying to some, the fact is that it fails to address the core issues that have caused the homelessness crisis to grow in the first place. Research shows that solutions like this don’t reduce the overall number of unhoused people.
“This is exactly why we created Better Angels. Our mission is to solve LA’s homelessness epidemic by harnessing the power of the entire LA community. Executive fiats are not going to accomplish that. We need programs—at scale—that:
1) Prevent people from becoming unhoused in the first place
2) Provide temporary shelter to help people get off the streets
3) Create tens of thousands of affordable housing units to provide more permanent housing
4) Offer services and housing navigation support to those in need”.
In Paris, authorities have also been sharply criticized as they have bused camping migrants from the city center where the Olympics are taking place to the fringes of Paris or other areas. Activist groups and migrants have called the practice – long used in other Olympic host cities like Rio de Janeiro in 2016 – a form of “social cleansing.”
“They want to clean the city for the Olympic Games, for the tourists,” said Nathan Lequeux, an organizer for the activist group Utopia 56. “As treatment of migrants is becoming more horrible and infamous, people are being chased off the streets. …Since the Olympics, this aggressiveness, this policy of hunting has become more pronounced.”
Christophe Noël Du Payrat, chief of staff of the regional government of Île-de-France that surrounds Paris, firmly denied those accusations and said the government has relocated migrants from the city for years.
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