LA councilmember slams Nithya Raman’s ‘failed’ homeless strategy

A political battle over LA’s homelessness crisis erupted Tuesday as Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez cast the lone vote against another huge spending package, accusing mayoral candidate Nithya Raman of continuing to fund a system she says has failed despite years of record spending.

The City Council vote locks in about $126 million to keep Los Angeles’ homelessness programs running through the current budget year.

The money pays for temporary tiny home villages, hygiene services, outreach teams, staffing and Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Safe program, which moves people from encampments into interim housing.

It also sends millions of dollars to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), the agency that coordinates homeless services across the city, even as it remains under federal scrutiny and city leaders debate replacing it.

Rodriguez blasted City Hall’s approach as a yearslong cycle of spending billions of taxpayer dollars without enough accountability, transparency or measurable success.

“My ‘no’ vote is reflective of the consistency that I’ve had in approaching the decisions and policymaking around homelessness strategy and investments,” Rodriguez told The California Post.

“I believe the people deserve greater transparency and oversight into the way the dollars are being expended.”

Rodriguez argued the city keeps spending more money without fixing the problem.

“Sadly, you see Councilmember Nithya Raman publicly talking about her concerns about expenditures, continuing to rubber stamp the very same status quo that she has been a part of,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez pointed to her own northeast San Fernando Valley district, where she said a different approach has removed RV encampments and moved people into permanent housing more efficiently.

“I have continued to advance the work in my own district that has proven to be far more cost-effective in removing RV encampments and permanently housing individuals into permanent solutions,” she said.

She then took direct aim at Raman, who chairs the City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee and is challenging Bass for mayor.

“I will continue to remain, sadly, the sole ‘no’ vote on these policies until such time there is a change in the direction at the leadership of the council, with Ms. Raman at the helm, who has continued to advance the same failed agenda that she’s now complaining about,” Rodriguez said.

The vote allocates previously approved state, county and settlement funding to keep existing programs operating.

The largest share of the package sends nearly $55 million in Measure A county sales tax revenue to homelessness programs, including more than $40.8 million to keep tiny home villages operating.

Another $17.9 million provides advance funding for LAHSA’s role in the city’s Inside Safe program. For Rodriguez, the issue is continuing to invest in a system she believes taxpayers have lost confidence in.

Rodriguez also noted Los Angeles County bears significant responsibility for the region’s homelessness crisis and should be held to the same standard as the city.

“Taxpayers deserve accountability from the county as much as they deserve it from the city,” she said.

“Their taxpayer dollars, I believe, are being redundantly expended in support of this work. Yet with as many times as taxpayers are being assessed to provide these resources from the state to the county to the local level, they’re not getting the services the taxes secured.”

Her criticism comes as LAHSA faces mounting pressure. The agency remains under federal investigation over its financial management. Los Angeles County has voted to leave the joint city-county homelessness authority.

The latest homeless count also showed homelessness increased this year in both the city and county despite years of record spending.

“From the issues surrounding the work of LAHSA to the county now withdrawing its resources and leaving even less transparency about the expenditures and use of taxpayer dollars, I think we’re still unfortunately going to suffer a lot of the consequences, as was reflected in the recent homeless count.”

Rodriguez said taxpayers should be seeing far more progress.

“I take it incredibly seriously that taxpayers deserve to see better results on the street, more immediate,” she said. “We should be able to point directly to the success in these areas.”

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