Mayoral candidate Nithya Raman said Los Angeles cannot keep spending as it has on temporary shelter and expect to make progress on street homelessness, laying out an alternative built around rental vouchers as she heads into the Nov. 3 runoff against Mayor Karen Bass.

In a one-on-one interview on Spectrum News' "The Rush Hour" on Tuesday, Aug. 25, Raman told anchor Renee Eng the city's current approach is a dead end.

"We cannot spend in such physically unsustainable ways and expect to make a long-term dent in the crisis," Raman said, adding that her approach focuses on "more cost-effective options that have actually better outcomes at getting people who are on the streets into permanent shelter or reunited with their families, or back on their feet."

The interview came six days after a combative first debate between Raman and Bass at the Sherman Oaks East Valley Adult Center on Aug. 19, where the two sparred over homelessness, housing and public safety.

The cost argument

Raman, a council member representing District 4 since 2020, has proposed scaling back Bass's signature Inside Safe program — which moves encampment residents into motels and interim housing — in favor of expanding the city's Time Limited Subsidy program, which places people directly into private apartments, according to LAist.

At the Aug. 19 debate, Raman cited a Los Angeles Times analysis finding that roughly 41% of people who went through Inside Safe had returned to homelessness since the program began nearly four years ago, according to NBC Los Angeles. Separately, city Administrative Officer figures cited by LAist put Inside Safe motel placements at roughly $85,000 per room annually, compared with about $24,000 annually per household under the voucher program.

That voucher program has struggled to get off the ground: as of mid-August, only three apartments had been filled under the $60 million initiative Raman championed through her council committee, according to the Daily Signal. The Bass campaign has pointed to the slow rollout as evidence the approach isn't working; Raman's campaign has countered that the $60 million "hasn't yet been spent" because funds aren't disbursed until participants sign leases.

District results vs. citywide numbers

Raman's office says unsheltered homelessness in District 4 dropped 49% year over year in the 2026 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, even as the city's unsheltered population rose nearly 8% overall, according to her council office. Citywide, the count found an estimated 45,194 people homeless in Los Angeles, according to LAist; the results were released July 24 by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

Political backdrop

The City Council voted unanimously Aug. 12 to direct staff to draft a plan for shifting city-funded homelessness programs away from LAHSA starting in the 2027-28 fiscal year, according to Westside Current. LAHSA has an annual budget of roughly $875 million, according to a report on the council's audit-driven push to bypass the agency.

Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson split the Housing and Homelessness Committee into two panels this month, removing Raman as chair and naming Councilmember Ysabel Jurado to lead the new Homelessness and Health Committee, effective Aug. 31, according to Spectrum News and the council district's own announcement. Raman called the move political retaliation for challenging Bass; Harris-Dawson rejected that characterization, calling the accusation a resort to "the bottom of the barrel politically," according to LA Mag.

Bass finished about five points ahead of Raman in the June 2 primary — 34.27% to 29.02%, according to certified results reported by the Crescenta Valley Weekly — but entered the general election with a majority of voters viewing her unfavorably: 56% in a UC Berkeley-Los Angeles Times poll conducted in March, before the primary, according to Westside Current. The Nov. 3 runoff is the next major milestone in the race.