The I-980 freeway in Oakland on Feb. 24, 2023. Photo by Martin do Nascimento, CalMatters
By Yesenia Perez and Hana Creger, Special for CalMatters
Freeway expansion isn’t just a transportation issue; it’s one of the most overlooked drivers of California’s housing crisis. It didn’t arrive as a sudden catastrophe; it has been a slow erosion, a quiet form of displacement that has pushed thousands of families from their homes. And it isn’t just a legacy of the past; new projects planned across the state are continuing to displace families.
In San Mateo, for instance, 33 families near the proposed Highway 101/92 expansion are facing forced removal from their homes. Versions of this pattern are unfolding across California: The California Department of Transportation, known as Caltrans, forces families from their homes to widen freeways, then it demolishes what remains.
In other cases, the agency buys up neighborhoods for projects that stall or are canceled, leaving the community trapped in limbo. For many of the affected families, there is no real choice — only eminent domain, pressured buyouts or the slow dismantling of livable conditions.
A stark example is the 710 freeway project in Los Angeles County. Caltrans displaced 460 families for a freeway that was never built, after decades of community opposition, environmental lawsuits and soaring costs. But the damage was done, suspending an entire community between displacement and decay. Caltrans has spent more than $17 million since 2020 just to guard the empty properties.
“Because they never built the freeway… hundreds of properties fell into disrepair. A lot of them are blighted,” said Raymond Gutierrez, an architect and community advocate, “It feels like the neighborhood is a slum, but it’s not. These buildings could have been housing people.”
His words reflect a harsh reality: state policy has repeatedly chosen freeways over people staying housed.
Recent state data shows that from 2018 to 2023, Caltrans demolished 623 homes and businesses to make way for 13 projects to expand freeways. The vast majority of the lost homes were in low-income communities of color, primarily in Los Angeles County.
New data from the state shows an additional 248 homes and businesses were demolished for freeway expansion in 2024, primarily in the Inland Empire region.
And that’s only during a narrow window of time. Before 2018, California required no public reporting on displacement, but Los Angeles Times research has found that more than 10,000 families were displaced by freeway projects over the past 30 years.
The lack of transparency is exactly why The Greenlining Institute created its Homes Before Highways interactive mapping tool, which brings data to life, showing where highway expansion has destroyed homes and businesses across California in recent years.
Freeway expansion destabilizes entire communities. Tearing down homes shrinks the housing supply and limits affordable options for families.
Families displaced by freeway projects face soaring rents, fewer housing options and longer commutes to jobs and support networks. As residents are pushed farther from job centers, they’re forced to spend more on transportation, now the second highest expense after housing.
Yet the justification for road expansion and displacement — traffic relief — rarely materializes. The expansions don’t reduce traffic; they make it worse by inducing more driving.
The Interstate 405 expansion, for example, cost $1.6 billion. Located in the western and southern reaches of the Los Angeles area, the project went wildly over budget and caused the demolition of 20 homes and three businesses. It also made traffic and commutes worse after completion.
California has better, proven options. Investments in public transit, walking and biking infrastructure, and electric vehicles reduce transportation costs and take cars out of gridlock, without forcing families from their homes and dismantling communities.
California’s elected leaders face an urgent and fundamental choice: They can continue spending billions on expansions that exacerbate the housing crisis but never deliver meaningful traffic relief; or they can invest in a transportation system that reflects values Californians champion: affordability and community wellbeing.
This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.
Yesenia Perez – Yesenia Perez is senior program manager for climate equity at the Greenlining Institute
Hana Creger – Hana Creger is associate director of climate equity at the Greenlining Institute
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