Mayoral candidate Nithya Raman unveiled her plan to address the city’s homelessness crisis Tuesday, vowing to bolster accountability and transparency in homelessness spending and to expand shelter beds without spending more taxpayer dollars.
“Homelessness in Los Angeles is a humanitarian crisis. Despite billions of dollars spent, 27,000 people sleep on our streets every night. The compassion is there. The money is there. What’s missing is a system that really works — and leadership willing to do the work to build one,” Raman said in a statement. “No one is in charge right now at City Hall, but it doesn’t have to be this way.”
Raman, who currently represents the Fourth City Council District and chairs the Housing and Homeless Committee, announced her challenge against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass on Feb. 7, hours before the filing deadline for candidates in the June primary election.
The councilwoman previously said the city is in dire need of change, pointing to a lack of basic services, broken sidewalks and darkened streets, as well as a need to build more housing and alter the approach to addressing homelessness.
The plan she released Tuesday focused on three areas: “invest in what works, fix what doesn’t and deliver results,” according to Raman’s campaign.
According to the campaign, the plan would bolster accountability of homelessness spending and outcomes. Raman proposed hiring more staff to conduct oversight of contracts, transitioning away from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, and implementing performance-based budgeting for every program in the homelessness budget. She called for the creation of real-time public dashboards to track shelter beds, housing placements, encampments and spending by program.
Raman also called for the creation of more shelter beds via further investment in time-limited subsidies and shared housing programs. The councilwoman argued such initiatives are far less costly compared to Bass’ Inside Safe program, and would deliver improved outcomes.
Lastly, she vowed to deploy street medicine teams citywide and directly in encampments, on sidewalks and in shelters to address mental health-related issues.
“Angelenos have done their part,” Raman said in a statement. “They voted. They taxed themselves to respond to this crisis with care and resources. City Hall let them down. I will treat this crisis with the urgency and focus it demands.”
Raman unveiled her homelessness plan two days after the Los Angeles Times published an analysis of Bass’ flagship program, Inside Safe, which is aimed at reducing street homelessness by bringing unhoused individuals living in encampments into temporary housing such as motels and hotels, and other interim shelters.
The Times found that almost 40% of unhoused individuals who moved indoors through Inside Safe returned to the streets, a figure that has increased every year since the program began in December 2022. Participants are staying nearly a year in motel rooms that cost an average more than $80,000 a year, The Times reported.
Los Angeles has spent more than $300 million on Inside Safe. Since its launch, the city has cleared hundreds of encampments and moved about 5,800 people into interim housing.
Inside Safe aimed to place unhoused individuals into permanent homes within 90 days, with a maximum stay of six months, according to the Times.
A representative for Bass’ campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Raman’s plan or The Times’ analysis.
Bass told The Times the city has outside researchers assessing the problem of participants leaving the program.
“It’s critically important that we look at the people who left, why they left (and) what do we need to do to strengthen the interim housing that we have,” Bass told The Times. “I have my opinions about it, but the opinions have to be based in science.”
Bass, who is seeking a second term as mayor, has so far focused her reelection campaign on her accomplishments so far, touting her handling of the homelessness crisis. She said her efforts have resulted in a 17.5% decline in unsheltered homelessness, or individuals living in encampments or in their vehicles, since 2024.
Housing advocate Rae Chen Huang, nonprofit executive Adam Miller, and reality television personality Spencer Pratt are also challenging Bass. Fourteen candidates are running for mayor.
Representatives for Huang, Miller and Pratt did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
If no candidate wins a majority in the June 2 primary, the top two finishers will advance to a November runoff.