Oppressive Legislation Towards the Unhoused: We’re Closer Than You Think

By: Johnathan Tran, Oluwadara Aina, & Paris Wisemon

Standing as California’s culinary nucleus and social center, chock-full of museums and other attractions, Los Angeles is a city of endless renown. But between the glitz and glamor of the city’s latest trends and attractions, resides one of the largest populations of unhoused people in the entire world. The sanitized futurism of premier attractions such as Westfield’s Century City harshly contrasts the lives of the unhoused, often living steps away from these tourist hotspots. Students cheerfully stroll through Westwood towards an afternoon lunch, passing by the city’s unhoused residents braving the summer’s heat. Visitors unwinding at Westfield Century City sip on artisanal coffees as they stride with shopping bags in hand, while others swipe food off tables from the mall’s food court in order to feed themselves before night falls. This separation between the housed and unhoused has, in many ways, become an accepted and normalized part of life in LA. 

Now, at this point, you may be curious as to what our taxpayer dollars are actually being allocated towards. If houselessness is such a pressing issue, surely our government would take necessary action to protect its underserved communities, right? It is evident through the dark history of the government's role in gentrification and redlining, as well as data collected from local studies on the houselessness crisis, that this is unfortunately not the case. Los Angeles, California, is undeniably a global and economic powerhouse. However, despite having such a booming and illustrious economy, Los Angeles still has approximately 72,308 individuals experiencing unsheltered houselessness as of 2025. While most picture housing inequality as strictly an economic issue, we must reframe this narrative and understand the ways in which oppressive government legislation pushes impoverished, nonwhite individuals further and further down the socioeconomic ladder. 

Redlining was a discriminatory practice by the federal government, financial institutions, and real estate agencies that excluded black and brown communities from receiving necessities such as housing, loans, and insurance. These practices, essentially, institutionalized racialized segregation. Although redlining has been outlawed as of 1968 in the Fair Housing Act, its impact echoes intergenerationally across communities of color in present day. The lack of affordable housing, and limited access to quality financial resources, contribute to a continuous cycle of poverty and houselessness. Southern California alone has a long-standing hostility towards housing low-income residents. The increased cost of living and urban renewal projects in historically marginalized neighborhoods continue to further exacerbate housing inequality. This process, known as “gentrification,” displaces vulnerable populations from affordable housing whilst ushering in wealthy residents.

As government policy continues to box in and limit affordable housing options, the corporate suits that support them further perpetuate LA’s housing crisis. As one of the world’s top ten most expensive cities to live in, housing in Los Angeles has risen in cost significantly within the past few years. Gentrification and urban renewal projects do improve the look and quality of many old homes, but that modernization is often targeted towards attracting wealthy buyers. Indeed, the majority of these buyers are corporate real estate conglomerates. These conglomerates are often pre-established corporations that have a large amount of money saved, which they use to buy up as many properties as they can afford to. As they buy out the city, homes that could have originally been bought and owned by the city’s residents become sources of passive income for these corporations. The high margins of luxury real estate make other housing options such as affordable housing less profitable ventures, driving the prices of housing ever-higher. Additionally, as renting tenants and not home owners, LA’s residents are subject to the whims of these already powerful real estate corporations and landlords. Even normal, everyday Angelenos are being encouraged to participate in this widescale buyout of the city’s homes. Passive income opportunities like AirBnB and Timeshare allow for the common person to claim their stake in the real estate market. As the housing environment continues to become more cutthroat and hostile, the market continues to turn its back on the city’s average residents.

Los Angeles is undoubtedly a bastion of the west. The city’s storied history, diverse culture, and thriving social scene are a testament to the city’s status as a landmark of our country. But as oppressive legislation, such as redlining, and hostile pricing of the housing market continue to push out the city’s residents, the disparity between the housed and unhoused has ballooned to unsustainable levels. As the country’s policy against the unhoused continues to further sharpen, and the wealth gap widens even further, educating ourselves on the complexities of the housing crisis becomes of even greater importance than ever.