Los Angeles’ homelessness emergency has moved from policy debate to open political combat.
Mayor Karen Bass pushed back Friday after Councilmember Nithya Raman sharply criticized City Hall’s handling of street homelessness, intensifying a confrontation that is already shaping the race ahead of the Nov. 3 mayoral election.
Raman pointed to the newest homeless count as evidence that the city’s approach is falling short, noting that unsheltered homelessness in Los Angeles rose by nearly 8% even after massive public spending.
In her criticism, Raman said Angelenos had been told the city was turning a corner, yet the latest numbers showed more people living outside. She called the increase a moral failure and blamed what she described as a lack of leadership.
Bass acknowledged that Los Angeles remains in the grip of a serious homelessness crisis, but said Raman’s attack overlooked areas where the city has seen measurable improvement, including parts of the district Raman represents.
The mayor argued that responsibility for the crisis is citywide, noting that she serves all of Los Angeles just as Raman, as chair of the homelessness committee, has a citywide role. Bass also said no resident should feel fully satisfied with the city’s response so far.
Bass highlighted progress in council districts 2, 4, 5, 7, 11, 13 and 15, saying those local gains show that some Los Angeles homelessness strategies are producing results, even as the overall citywide figures remain deeply concerning.
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She also touted the city’s Inside Safe program, saying her administration responded after Raman sought assistance by housing 87 people in Council District 4 since the beginning of last year and clearing long-standing encampments, including the notorious 405 and Oxnard site.
“When Councilmembers like Nithya Raman asked for Inside Safe’s help, we answered — housing 87 people since the beginning of last year alone and clearing notorious encampments, like 405 & Oxnard that had been growing for years,” Bass wrote.
Bass also emphasized that unsheltered homelessness has fallen across Los Angeles over the past three years, while acknowledging the city still has a long way to go.
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“In the past three years, unsheltered homelessness has gone down in LA by 11% — while that’s progress, that’s not acceptable. We’re going to immediately change what’s not working and double down on what is working.”
The dueling claims stem from different parts of the same report.
Citywide, unsheltered street homelessness rose 7.9%, a figure that applies only to the City of Los Angeles, not Los Angeles County.
But Raman’s Council District 4 bucked that trend, posting a 49% drop in unsheltered street homelessness, according to data released by her office and local media tracking the 2026 homeless count.
The latest numbers also underscore the starkly different communities where some of the biggest gains were recorded.
Council District 4 is one of the city’s wealthiest districts, with a median household income of nearly $119,000 and average home prices around $1.5 million, well above the citywide median home value of roughly $1.05 million.
Council District 9, represented by Councilmember Curren D. Price Jr., by contrast, is among Los Angeles’ poorest districts, with a median household income of about $54,000 and average home values around $640,000, showing that significant declines in street homelessness were recorded in neighborhoods facing vastly different economic conditions.
