Inglewood, Calif. has an ever-growing homeless population, and instead of funding housing or aid programs for these citizens, the city chose to host and sponsor Super Bowl LVI.

While over 62,000 people gathered at the newly erected SoFi stadium to watch grown men give each other concussions, thousands of homeless Inglewood citizens spent another night on the streets. Rather than pouring revenue into Inglewood’s homeless community and providing shelter, the city’s money was spent on hosting people from all over the country to watch a sporting event that lasted one day. 

In an article from NBC News, the author discusses how, in order to present the city in it’s best light, homeless encampments were being forced to relocate for the Super Bowl. In this so-called effort to make the city seem more presentable, what really took place was mass displacement and dehumanization. 

The city claims that they are going to build housing units for the homeless, yet little progress has been made and nothing has been heard about resources for mental health, finding jobs, or creating substantial change in these peoples’ lives. 

One of the encampments had to be cleared out because, in that same NBC News article previously mentioned, Caltrans said it was a fire hazard, however this was only two miles away from SoFi stadium, which seems to be the real reason the camp was destroyed. Inglewood locked their problems away to deal with later, so that people who were not native to the area remained blissfully unaware.

Caelen Brown, a senior at SSU, said, “I always look forward to this time of the year when football fans gather together, however as a psychology major I know how this can affect people long term. People being ripped away from where they call home in order to please people they do not care about is not a solution to a homelessness crisis, it is a fake fix to make the city look  good, which in return when I found out about this, it painted Inglewood in a very bad light.” 

It’s important to note that even avid fans of the sport are enraged by what took place in Inglewood. 

When asked for a comment on the issue, an anonymous Sonoma State student said, “As an avid sports fan, I was excited for the Super Bowl. However, I was saddened to find out about the mistreatment of the homeless. I strongly believe in helping others and a way to do that is through advocating for mental health, and these people do not have a voice, or someone to stand up for them.” 

Seeing a whole city blatantly disregard how forcing people out would affect their mental health is not only shocking, but disturbing. If funds were going to the Super Bowl, then funds could have been used to ensure help was in place for these people who were forced to leave.

Third year SSU student Gabriella Maes said,  “I was shocked to find out a city is allowed to push people out without warning, and not even provide them an alternative. I understand that many people think football is important, but people having a safe place to live is even more important.”

Homelessness is not something that can be brushed off and fixed overnight. The Super Bowl brought a lot of people to the area, and if people saw how many homeless people needed help, maybe they would have felt called to help. However, that was not even a possibility because the city chose to force the homeless out. Resources need to be available for the wellbeing of all people, whether they have a home or not. The homeless are not exempt from being treated fairly due to their living conditions. If the city is going to claim they want to help and make change for these people they need to start now, so that when the Olympics are being hosted here in 2028, the same problem does not happen again.