Nithya Raman’s rotten record on homelessness – Latest News
Homelessness stays a cussed fixture in LA, regardless of billions poured into fixes.
Councilwoman Nithya Raman has positioned herself because the visionary reformer prepared to steer as mayor.
Yet a nearer take a look at the applications she promotes reveals a acquainted story: grand bulletins, hefty price tags and outcomes that arrive at a glacial tempo –– in the event that they arrive in any respect.
A flagship instance: the Time Limited Subsidy (TLS) program, which Raman has long championed as a smarter, cheaper different to costly motel shelters. In observe, it has delivered little more than bureaucratic foot-dragging.
Homelessness stays a cussed fixture in LA, regardless of billions poured into fixes. Andy Johnstone for CA Post
A flagship instance: the Time Limited Subsidy (TLS) program, which Raman has long championed as a smarter, cheaper different to costly motel shelters. I Pedro Colo for CA Post
Launched with great fanfare as half of efforts to adjust to court docket settlements on encampment clearances, the TLS initiative was designed to maneuver people shortly into market-rate flats with time-limited rent help and case management.
The City Council authorized the investment in September, supplied a redesigned model concentrating on 2,000 households in January, and rolled it out on March 1.
By late final month solely three flats had been crammed. Three.
The price to taxpayers for this trickle of progress: $62.6 million. That works out to more than $20 million per family up to now. One may call this deliberate; others would say it’s an costly method to obtain virtually nothing.
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Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez didn’t mince phrases. “One household a month is not a solution,” she advised reporters. “I would say they’re having issues with the program. It’s not working.”
Rodriguez identified the apparent irony: Raman’s much-criticized goal, Mayor Karen Bass’s Inside Safe program, abruptly regarded like a discount by comparability.
Inside Safe has price roughly $391 million since 2022 and served practically 6,000 people, regardless of its own flaws and high per-person motel tabs approaching $85,000 yearly.
Raman likes to rail in opposition to that expense. Yet her most popular subsidy model, after years of advocacy, managed a tempo that makes the “expensive” different appear downright environment friendly.
Taxpayers, of course, foot the invoice for this theater.
City employees drive via MacArthur Park in Los Angeles. Ringo Chiu
Los Angeles City Councilmember and mayoral candidate Nithya Raman talking at a marketing campaign occasion. Getty Images
While Raman touts TLS as a cost-effective path ahead, the early returns counsel in any other case. The $62.6 million has purchased minimal motion off the streets, leaving weak Angelenos in limbo and neighborhoods pissed off.
This isn’t an remoted stumble. Under Raman’s committee watch, Project Homekey acquisitions (one other huge housing push), have left over 1,000 items vacant or offline years after buy, regardless of a whole bunch of thousands and thousands spent.
Properties sit empty whereas upkeep and lease prices accrue, turning public investment into costly real estate hypothesis with no seen benefit to the unhoused.
Then there’s the $4,011,357 state Encampment Resolution Fund grant Raman secured practically two years in the past for harmful encampments alongside a 19-mile stretch of the Los Angeles River.
The money was earmarked for outreach, housing placements, and clearing tents.
People experiencing homelessness collect at MacArthur Park. Ringo Chiu
Properties sit empty whereas upkeep and lease prices accrue, turning public investment into costly real estate hypothesis with no seen benefit to the unhoused. Andy Johnstone for CA Post
As of late May 2026, it remained largely unspent.
Raman’s workplace supplied the predictable deflection: Administrative and contracting delays are “deeply frustrating.” One can virtually hear the collective taxpayer sigh.
Securing grants makes for a strong press release; really delivering outcomes apparently requires superhuman effort past City Hall’s pay grade.
These delays and excuses kind a sample that ought to fear Angelenos contemplating Raman for mayor.
Nithya Raman talking at a podium with a “Nithya for Mayor” signal, pointing her proper index finger whereas talking into a microphone. REUTERS
Two people sit within the grass, one showing to make use of medicine. Ringo Chiu
Raman’s council committee on homelessness has presided over durations the place funding bulletins outpace placements, vacancies pile up, and grants collect mud.
Each stalled greenback represents misplaced alternative: fewer people housed, more encampments lingering, and better long-term societal bills from untreated mental health, habit, and public questions of safety.
The human price is tragic, and the financial one is staggering. Taxpayers have funneled monumental sums into homelessness –– billions total –– but seen progress lags.
Voters are exhausted with the established order.
Raman brims with rhetoric about effectivity and accountability, but the TLS rollout, Homekey vacancies, and the unspent river grant counsel Raman the mayoral candidate is more comfy critiquing others’ failures than overcoming her own.
The backside line is evident. Promises are low cost. Taxpayer-funded failures are usually not.
Richie Greenberg is a political commentator primarily based in San Francisco.
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