LOS ANGELES — The Paris Olympic Games are well underway and the world’s focus is now on the Olympians and their remarkable athleticism, but behind the gymnastics, fencing, swimming and archery are years of planning, logistics and intense coordination.

Preparing for the Olympics begins years in advance, and is already well underway in Los Angeles, where the next Olympic Games will occur in 2028.

And while the games promise to bring big business, excitement and attention to LA, some also hope it also brings support to communities and populations in need, such as homeless people.

In downtown LA at the Union Rescue Mission, sports have been sidelined to make way for beds. The Mission’s Lakers themed gym has been filled with bunk beds, clothes and children’s toys.

“When we had a surge of families about a year ago, we filled it with bunks. Initially, we just had blow up mattresses in this area and families back to back,” said COO of the Mission, Richard Baker.

For Baker and others who work in homeless services, the games are an opportunity to bring innovation to one of LA’s most pressing issues.

“I know there’s a lot of sponsorship and a lot of money that comes with the Olympics and there’s a requirement with the Olympic committee that they have to give back. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if the Olympics alone helped us solve part of this problem? That they brought in so many resources? It’s not just money, we need ideas, we need creativity, we need innovation,” Baker said. 

The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, has shared similar sentiments. She attended the opening ceremony in Paris.

“Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass returned to Los Angeles from Paris, France on Monday after attending the Opening Ceremony as part of the official Presidential Delegation led by First Lady Dr. Jill Biden as she continues crucial preparations for the Los Angeles region to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2028. Ensuring Angelenos benefit from the preparation and hosting of this major event, both now and for decades, is a top priority for the Mayor with a focus on helping local small businesses, creating local jobs and creating lasting environmental and transportation improvements throughout Los Angeles,” her office said in a statement.

But some in Paris have been critical of the treatment of the city’s homeless population and of refugees. Several news outlets, including the Associated Press, have captured video of people being moved out of encampments and of tents being cleared along the River Seine.

Jules Boykoff is a professor of Political Science at Pacific University in Oregon and has studied the Olympics extensively and written six books about the games. Boykoff says the games can have a negative impact on the host city.

“The Olympics are an inequality machine. They take all the inequality that exists in a society before the Olympics and they magnify them, they intensify them, that’s what we have seen here in Paris as the games approached,” Boykoff said. 

In Paris, city officials have denied that the removal of encampments is connected to the Olympics and have said they are offering people housing. In an interview with the Associated Press, Christophe Noël du Payrat, Chief of Staff for the Île-de-France region government, said, “We are very much determined to offer places to these people and to take care of them.”

During the closing ceremony in Paris, the torch will pass over to Los Angeles — Baker at the Union Rescue Mission said he hopes all of LA will see a benefit from the games.

“This is Los Angeles, this is part of our community,” he said, pointing to the hundreds of beds now filling the Union Rescue Mission gym. “It needs to be part of the Olympics or any other event that comes.”