Some host cities are aiming to house, not arrest, homeless people ahead of the World Cup

ATLANTA (AP) — Only a mile from Atlanta’s stadium, which is able to welcome tens of hundreds of followers to World Cup video games this month, dozens of individuals had been camped out on a downtown sidewalk ready for a homeless shelter to open.

Some slept in sleeping luggage, face masks over their eyes to dam out the afternoon solar. Others sat on the sidewalk consuming from cereal packing containers. Sneakers lay scattered alongside empty mini-liquor bottles. A increase field blasted a Jay-Z track: “This will’t be proper, there’s gotta be extra.”

Final summer time, Atlanta introduced an bold plan to finish encampments and different avenue sleeping downtown forward of the 39-day soccer spectacular that begins June 11. Referred to as Downtown Rising, this system stated it has housed practically 500 individuals. However the scene on a latest afternoon outdoors this shelter on Pryor Avenue was a visceral reminder that Atlanta has not reached everybody.

Atlanta is certainly one of a number of of the cities in the USA, Canada and Mexico utilizing the eye that comes with internet hosting the world’s premier soccer event to deal with homelessness. Seattle introduced a housing push and stated it was utilizing the World Cup to gauge its progress. Dallas stated it was increasing a profitable effort to deal with homeless individuals residing downtown.

A survey by The Related Press discovered, nevertheless, that many of the 16 venues, together with New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, Houston, Toronto, and Vancouver, British Columbia, are counting on present applications — most with none new funding tied to the World Cup — to deal with homelessness.

Rising tent encampments have bedeviled city leaders for years. Federal knowledge confirmed a double-digit share improve in homelessness nationwide from 2023 to 2024, when 770,000 individuals had been counted as homeless — a quantity acknowledged as an undercount. That was adopted by a slight lower final 12 months to 745,652.

Up to now, many cities have handled the homeless as an eyesore to be eliminated forward of massive sporting and political occasions.

Throughout final 12 months’s Tremendous Bowl, New Orleans spent hundreds of thousands of {dollars} clearing away tent encampments close to the Superdome and shifting the homeless into a brief warehouse. Forward of the 2024 Paris Olympics, migrants had been bused out of the town till the Video games ended. Chicago eliminated certainly one of its largest encampments forward of the 2024 Democratic Nationwide Conference.

“These occasions present a selection for communities,” stated Ann Oliva, CEO of the Nationwide Alliance to Finish Homelessness. “They will do the straightforward factor and sweep individuals out of encampments and into jails or different neighborhoods, or they’ll do the tougher work that can profit everybody locally — housed or unhoused.”

Atlanta seeks to deal with downtown homeless

As host of the 1996 Olympics, Atlanta eliminated some 9,000 homeless people to a newly constructed detention heart. It gave others one-way bus tickets out of city and launched “Operation Olympus,” detaining a whole bunch of individuals to scale back crime.

However this time round, the town was decided to do issues otherwise.

It has raised $185 million in state and metropolis funding, in addition to company grants and different donations, towards a purpose of $235 million, with the intention of housing 3,900 individuals citywide by subsequent 12 months. The most recent metropolis rely final 12 months confirmed there have been some 2,900 homeless individuals citywide, a few third residing in encampments or on the road.

“There’ll at all times be homeless individuals on our streets, greater than probably, sadly,” stated Cathryn Vassell, the CEO of Companions for HOME, the group tasked with creating and executing Atlanta’s homelessness technique. The purpose is “to have the ability to establish them and shortly exit them into shelter, sources, providers, after which in the end housing.”

Downtown Rising has helped Michael Sutton flip his life round. In foster care since he was an toddler, he bounced from household to household. For many of the previous decade, the 31-year-old slept in practice stations, parks, deserted buildings and homeless shelters.

Since September, Sutton has had a one-bedroom residence in an Atlanta suburb and a case employee.

“Everybody has tough days, and with the ability to go dwelling or vent to your self about it, enjoyable in your individual dwelling … is priceless,” Sutton stated.

However not everybody might be helped.

Some homeless individuals recoil at shelter guidelines, lack the paperwork to shortly transfer into everlasting housing or have difficult drug and psychological well being challenges, or nomadic existence that make them tough to achieve.

Tommy Elam stated he’s been on quite a few housing lists, however nothing has occurred — although he’s arduous to search out. His telephone was stolen numerous occasions and he doesn’t at present have one.

“They don’t know the place I’m at,” stated Elam, who’s been homeless since early 2020 and spent the final three months sleeping on the sidewalk close to the Pryor Avenue homeless shelter, his newest spot since a crackdown on the encampment the place he lived close to the Georgia State Capitol constructing.

Standing outdoors the downtown supportive housing heart the place he now lives, Willie Jackson, who spent years on the streets, stated he is aware of individuals who’ve been helped by the Downtown Rising initiative. However he’s skeptical it’ll result in lasting change after the World Cup — or that it’s made a big affect on downtown’s homelessness downside.

“Simply go searching,” he stated.

No extra tents in Dallas

Two years in the past, it was arduous to overlook the a whole bunch of tents round Dallas Metropolis Corridor.

However forward of the World Cup, there have been no tent encampments downtown, the place FIFA’s broadcast heart is ready up, or on the close by fan zone. The matches can be performed at Dallas’ stadium in suburban Arlington.

Sarah Kahn, president and CEO of Housing Ahead, which leads the homelessness response for Dallas and close by Collin counties, stated a $30 million marketing campaign since 2024 diminished the variety of individuals sleeping on downtown streets by 87% and positioned some 2,000 into everlasting housing.

In March, an extra $28 million was allotted to develop countywide, with a purpose of offering 1,100 individuals housing, the company stated. Outreach employees deploy every day inside a quarter-mile of transit hubs, the fan zone and the FIFA broadcast heart to search out anybody sleeping outdoors and supply providers, it stated.

Elisabeth Jordan, founding father of The Human Impression, which helps the chronically homeless, praised the initiative as “the only biggest change … in homeless response in Dallas.”

However she criticized Dallas police ways that included zip-tying and eradicating individuals who remained after their encampments had been cleared. Dozens of individuals from one encampment had been housed in Might, however about 20 who remained had been detained, she stated. In an announcement, the Dallas police division referred to as such detentions “customary observe” for individuals “violating the prohibited tenting regulation” and who refuse housing.

Kacey Coker, who spent years on the streets or in jail, described a dramatic enchancment in how the homeless are handled. Authorities used to “come by means of with a bulldozer and take our stuff and throw it away,” stated the 51-year-old, who misplaced her beginning certificates and social safety card in these sweeps.

In Might, she was provided a backed one-bedroom residence for a number of hundred {dollars} a month. For the primary time, Coker feels secure.

“I can really construct one thing,” she stated.

Tiny houses emerge in Seattle

At a vacant lot a number of miles from Seattle’s stadium, employees had been placing the ultimate touches final week on 75 tiny houses.

The 70-square-foot models with a mattress, area heater and air conditioner are a part of Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson’s bold plan to open 500 models of latest shelter by the beginning of the World Cup.

It’s a purpose she acknowledges she has missed — by 425 models.

“The World Cup …. supplied simply form of a very good purpose publish,” Wilson advised the AP in an interview, saying the town will open an extra 228 beds by the tip of the summer time.

“Once you put a quantity on the market, that has the benefit of galvanizing individuals,” nevertheless it may also be framed as a failure should you miss it, Wilson stated. “So, I actually hope that the message … is look, we’re making progress.”

Homelessness advocates stated they weren’t shocked Wilson didn’t meet such a lofty purpose inside six months of election. The World Cup isn’t what’s vital; getting individuals housed is, they added.

“I’m simply glad that something has occurred to date,” stated Bruce Drager of Ballard Neighborhood Job Pressure on Homeless and Starvation close to the place the tiny houses had been constructed.

Camped out together with his spouse between a sidewalk and practice tracks simply blocks from the stadium, Chris Moore stated he hasn’t heard concerning the metropolis’s housing plans.

A big encampment close by has been cleared twice within the 5 months since he’s been there, stated Moore, who’s been homeless for eight years. However dozens of tents had been again once more per week earlier than the primary sport.

“I suppose as a result of the World Cup’s coming, you don’t need homeless individuals round,” he stated.

Inglewood spruces up stadium space

In Inglewood, California, web site of the Los Angeles space stadium, roads had been squeaky clear and paved with contemporary asphalt. Brilliant flowers crammed planters downtown and close to the stadium.

“There’s no homeless in Inglewood,” Mayor James Butts advised the AP when requested concerning the metropolis’s plans for housing individuals residing on the streets forward of the World Cup. “Simply take a look at the numbers.”

Certainly, Inglewood’s’ homeless rely final 12 months was small — just below 400, a few third of whom had been residing on the road within the metropolis of 100,000 individuals — in comparison with LA, the place 43,695 homeless had been counted within the metropolis of three.8 million-plus.

However lower than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from the stadium and simply outdoors Inglewood metropolis limits, the nonprofit St. Margaret’s Middle was handing out dozens of sack lunches for the homeless on a latest morning.

Carter Hewgley, who oversees strategic partnerships at LA County’s Homeless Companies and Housing Division, stated it has secured three motel websites forward of the World Cup — “not as a result of there’s video games, however as a result of there’s homeless.” The websites, together with in Inglewood, vary from 54 to 104 rooms. The company additionally maintains tens of hundreds of shelter beds, he stated.

In Toronto and Vancouver, enterprise as typical

In Canada, Toronto and Vancouver stated they had been counting on their already in depth providers to supply hundreds of shelter beds and short-term housing rooms, in addition to outreach to these residing on the streets. Vancouver has additionally arrange facilities the place matches can be proven. Each stated there have been no plans to relocate homeless individuals forward of the video games.

Nonetheless, there have been sporadic stories by advocates of crackdowns focusing on homeless individuals.

In Toronto, the place Canada’s largest shelter system helps greater than 8,500 individuals every night time, advocates held a rally final month denouncing what they stated had been transit police ways aggressively focusing on the homeless on the metropolis’s foremost practice station.

Toronto Underhoused and Homeless Union stated its survey of dozens of homeless individuals discovered some forcibly faraway from toilets and elsewhere, and subjected to verbal abuse by transit police. In an announcement to the AP, the town didn’t straight deal with the complaints however stated it doesn’t “tolerate, ignore, or condone discrimination or harassment.”

In Vancouver, a whole bunch of activists held a protest in April over elevated safety forward of the World Cup. A 2025 rely confirmed 2,715 homeless individuals, some in Vancouver’s Downtown East Aspect space close to the stadium.

Final month, at a downtown park the place homeless individuals are allowed to remain in a single day, Harley Ransom was resting in his tent and stated he’s seen aggressive ways.

Close by, Francesca Crane, who stated the van she lived in together with her pet rabbits had been towed away, accused the town of “sweeping the homeless individuals underneath the carpet for FIFA to make it seem like a clear metropolis, no homelessness.”

“They’re catering to individuals from different nations however stepping on the individuals of their very own metropolis and province,” she stated. “What they’re doing is unsuitable.”

Casey reported from Boston. Related Press reporters Manuel Valdes in Seattle; Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon; Jim Morris in Vancouver, British Columbia; Robert Gillies in Toronto; Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri; Jamie Stengle in Dallas, and Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles contributed.