A powerful committee chaired by socialist wannabe LA mayor Nithya Raman has voted to hand over $6.6 million to a radical activist group that’s previously sued the City.
Los Angeles City Council’s Housing and Homeless Committee greenlit more than $177 million in homeless spending contracts – including the fresh multi-million-dollar payday for Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, better known as SAJE.
They want the LAPD abolished, the 2028 Olympics to be cancelled and to freeze rent.
The $6.6 million in funding given to the SAJE comes despite the group having sued the City of Los Angeles over approvals for a luxury hotel project on public land, which lead to closed-door settlement talks in 2023.
The vote also comes after The California Post revealed a similarly aligned agenda of the Democratic Socialist’s of America, who support Raman, and want to seize private property, take control of local supermarkets and shut down jails.
The SAJE will use the money to fund “Protection from Tenant Harassment” outreach and education under the city’s Right to Counsel program and the voter-approved United to House LA homelessness prevention initiative.
Money to fund the payout comes largely from the voter-approved “mansion tax” on property sales over $5 million. Supporters claim the money will unleash billions in affordable housing construction and homelessness prevention.
However, instead of cranes in the sky building new units, much of the revenue has so far gone to administrative overheads such as staffing bureaucracies, hiring consultants, and paying for lawyers to challenge the tax.
The group has a long history of headline-grabbing activism, including urging boycotts of city hotels and championed sweeping rent and mortgage freezes during the pandemic.
The California Post has previously revealed the SAJE has already received at least $1.43 million in public funds since 2020 through various housing and utility-related contracts.
Those funds included money generated through the city’s Systematic Code Enforcement Program — a fee paid by landlords and tenants that operates outside the general fund and comes with limited public accounting of how dollars are spent.
Small housing providers have bristled at the arrangement. “There were times I honestly didn’t know if I could keep the doors open,” Venice landlord Craig Ribeiro previously told The Post. “And then you realize you’re paying into groups that are fighting people like me — that’s infuriating.”
SAJE disputes that public money is misused. A spokesperson has said the organization tracks expenses by funding source and does not use restricted funds for prohibited advocacy. City rules allow nonprofits to hold contracts while engaging in policy advocacy, and SAJE is exempt from the city’s lobbying ordinance disclosure requirements.
The SAJE’s contract now heads to the City Council for a final vote.
Raman, who chairs the powerful Housing and Homelessness Committee, controls which housing contracts move forward and when. As a mayoral candidate, housing policy is at the center of her political platform.
