Letters to the Housed by Paul Asplund of SecondGrace.LA
Publishing every Tuesday in April 2026
The deadlines
FIFA World Cup — Los Angeles
June 11, 2026
Olympic Opening Ceremony
July 14, 2028
What Paris taught us
In the 18 months leading up to the 2024 Paris Games, 19,526 people were displaced from their living spaces — including 4,550 children. Lives upended. Services were severed. Communities were scattered to cities they didn't know.
But Paris also contained a small program that worked. 256 people were placed in dignified, stable, relationship-based housing near their existing support networks. Outreach workers with trusted relationships made offers that were actually responsive to what people needed.
"When solutions are adapted, dignified, and humane, they are accepted and allow exits from the street even for the most complicated situations."
The full failure and the small success carry the same lesson: people make rational decisions when given rational choices. The question is whether the city is making rational offers.
People displaced in Paris — including 4,550 children. Encampments cleared. Services severed. Zero permanent housing created.
People housed through Paris's dignified placement program. When the offer was right, people said yes. Every time.
The Four-Part Series
Publishing every Tuesday in April 2026 · Letters to the Housed on Substack
Part 1 of 4
What Paris Taught Us, and What LA Could Still Accomplish
Mega-events, displacement, and the choice in front of Los Angeles.
April 7, 2026
Part 2 of 4
Ask Them First: What Paris Taught Us About Whose Expertise Counts
Co-designing event response with unhoused residents.
April 14, 2026
Part 3 of 4
We Have the Money
What it would actually cost to protect unhoused Angelenos before 2028, and where the money already exists.
April 21, 2026
Part 4 of 4
We Have the Money
What it would actually cost to protect unhoused Angelenos before 2028, and where the money already exists.
April 21, 2026
