‘This is not a World Cup for the people’: residents in host cities sound alarm over housing affordability

More than 10 million people are expected to visit the US for the World Cup this summer. However, where and how to accommodate these visitors has been a concern among residents and affordable housing advocates in host cities from Seattle to Atlanta.

Hotels remain under-booked in America’s 11 host cities, while short-term rental listings in some cities have increased by as much as 30% in recent weeks. To incentivize homeowners and landlords to become hosts during the World Cup, platforms such as Airbnb are offering a $750 sign-up bonus, with some rental listings already reaching $6,000 a night. Advocates worry that an increase in short-term listings will lead to a tighter rental market and higher rents for residents in host cities.

“May to August is when many New Yorkers are negotiating their leases,” said Whitney Hu, director of civic engagement and research for Churches United for Fair Housing, a member of the Tenants Not Tourists coalition. “If [New York’s] short-term rental restriction was lifted, that’s an incentive for landlords to push tenants out and rent their places out for the World Cup.”

Organizers such as Tenants Not Tourists and the national coalition Dignity 2026 are preparing to protect residents in host cities on two fronts: renters from housing instability and unhoused residents from being arrested. Together, they’re putting pressure on Fifa – the governing body of the World Cup – and city officials to put forth human rights plans and ensure that tenants and unhoused people will not be harmed.

“We’re using this period leading up to the event to strengthen networks, connect resources and build momentum,” said Jennifer Li, a leader at Dignity 2026. “Right now, this is not a World Cup for the people.”

Protecting residents from rising rents

Affordable housing advocates have already seen some wins. Late last year, Airbnb pushed to lift New York City’s short-term rental restrictions for the World Cup and Tenants Not Tourists pushed back, citing 2018 data from the city comptroller’s office that approximately 9% of the citywide increase in rental rates could be attributed to Airbnb’s presence.

Hundreds of New Yorkers, including union representatives, city officials and policy experts, gathered at city hall to speak out against the bill. In the end, the city council shut it down. “I continue to maintain the position that I’ve had, which is that we have to ensure that we allow New York City’s homes to remain as homes and not become hotels, and that we have hotels for exactly that purpose,” said Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s mayor.

But New York, with its short-term rental restrictions, may be better protected from housing instability than other areas where the World Cup is being played. For example, in neighboring New Jersey, there is a loose patchwork of local laws governing short-term rental restrictions. Some New Jersey towns are imposing their own bans ahead of the World Cup, while others are seeing Airbnb listings at $1,000 a night.

Airbnb says the US’s affordable housing crisis is caused by the underproduction of new housing, not short-term rentals. “Thirty-five per cent of residents surveyed in host cities say the extra income from hosting would help them cover basic living expenses,” said Nathan Rotman, director of policy strategy in North America for Airbnb.

After Fifa announced its World Cup schedule, Dignity 2026 called on the organization to identify human rights risks. When asked about its rollout of human rights plans, a Fifa spokesperson said host cities will release drafts on “a rolling basis. Fifa is supporting this process through ongoing engagement, technical guidance and independent expert input.” So far, only four out of 16 North American host cities have made their plans public.

Since there is no restriction on short-term rental companies in Atlanta, coalition members are tracking violations of tenants’ rights. Matthew Nursey, an organizing director with Housing Justice League, said he’s already seeing renters on the west side of Atlanta face lease non-renewals or having trouble finding affordable housing. “This week, I had two people say that their leases were not renewed,” Nursey said. “ They have a suspicion that it was so that their landlords can rent their places out during the World Cup.”

Nursey said it’s historically been difficult for the city government to intervene in private property matters, including rent control or rent stabilization. Instead, organizers are kick-starting conversations with city council members about possible taxes on short-term rentals. While that will not happen in time for the World Cup, they hope to put a measure on the ballot in the future.

Preventing unhoused residents from being jailed

This summer will not be Atlanta’s first time hosting an international sporting event; the city hosted the Olympics in 1996. But some residents remember the event for a very different reason: the Atlanta City detention center, which became a jail for the thousands of low-income unhoused Atlantans arrested in an effort to purge them from the streets leading up to the Olympics.

“That jail is the lasting legacy of the event. We don’t want history to repeat itself,” said Timothy Franzen, the Atlanta economic justice program director at the American Friends Service Committee.

Franzen and other grassroots leaders are part of Play Fair ATL, a coalition launched in September 2025 to address housing, immigration and labor rights in Atlanta during the World Cup. Play Fair ATL questioned the city’s “Downtown Rising” plan, which promised to house all the people who were in the vicinity of the venue.

“There’s a thousand people in the gap between housing units available and the number of unhoused,” Franzen said. “We’re asking city leaders – what happens to the people in the gap? Are you going to bus people outside the city, or throw them in the city jail, like last time?”

When asked about the lack of housing units, Atlanta City Council spokesperson referred the Guardian to a list of city resources.

In Kansas City, local housing justice organizers such as HouseKC are in data-gathering mode before the World Cup. Kansas City is constructing a $22m temporary jail facility with 100 beds before the World Cup and organizers are concerned that unhoused community members will be detained there.

“The city has never hosted an event this large in recent memory,” said Nehemiah Rosell, a leader at the grassroots houseless advocacy group, the Greater Kansas City Coalition to End Homelessness. “There is no plan, no chain of communication right now. The people who end up in that jail will be people who are ‘inconvenient’ for World Cup organizers and businesses.”

Rosell said that as the World Cup dates approach, Kansas City organizers are seeing a definitive uptick in the number of unhoused camps being swept near the stadium. “Sweeps are not only disruptive and traumatizing for people that are unhoused, but they also make it much harder for them to find housing in the long term – they lose belongings, they lose connections to services, and it might get put on their records,” Rosell said.

When asked about the potential arrests of unhoused residents, Asia Jones, public information officer at the city manager’s office, said: “The division’s encampment response strategy is rooted in collaboration, bringing together multiple partners to reduce encampments, with law enforcement as just one component of the response strategy.”

In order to track real-time data about how the World Cup is impacting unhoused people, HouseKC is launching a form called “Undocumenting Harms to Our Unhoused Neighbors” where people can record encampment sweeps, arrests and fines leading up to and during the event. They’re handing out flyers with QR codes to community members and housing service providers. “We want to document what’s happening – if things do happen during the World Cup, we’ll have a record of it that we can advocate from,” Rosell said.

In Atlanta last month, Play Fair ATL hosted a “People’s Cup” – a local soccer tournament and outreach event where community members could sign up to represent their countries. In addition to the soccer matches, local organizations were tabling to boost voter registration and pass information on how the World Cup might affect immigrant communities in Atlanta.

“Big picture, what we’re trying to do is shine a light on how much the World Cup is not actually a community-oriented event,” said Michael Collins, the director of Play Fair ATL. “The tickets are exorbitant, and we know we’re going to have ICE presence at stadiums.”

Collins, who was wearing a Morocco jersey, was quick to point out that many members of the coalition are big soccer fans. “The World Cup as a sporting event is very exciting,” Collins said. “But we want it to be done properly, not with encampment sweeps and putting people in jail.”