LA mayoral candidate Nithya Raman to be removed as chair of homelessness and housing committee

LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- City Councilwoman and Los Angeles mayoral candidate Nithya Raman is expected to be removed as chair of the five-member Housing and Homelessness Committee.

Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson is planning to announce that the committee will be split into two, a housing committee and a homelessness committee, neither of which will be led by Raman, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday, citing sources familiar with the situation.

Harris-Dawson is a close ally of Mayor Karen Bass, whom Raman is challenging in November.

As council president, Harris-Dawson has the power to add, eliminate or alter committees, as well as to assign or reassign members under the municipal code. His motion to restructure the committees is expected to be voted on this week, and subsequently the committee assignments will be made public, according to his office.

In a statement to City News Service, Raman said it was an honor to chair the Housing and Homelessness Committee during a time of real challenge and turbulence. She has led the committee since 2023.

Raman said that under her leadership, the city passed the strongest protections for renters in 40 years with the Just Cause eviction protections, and lowered rent increases in rent-stabilized units.

Raman also said the city established an office for oversight over homelessness dollars backed by clear performance data during her tenure. The city has used such data to better occupy shelter beds and permanent housing units.

"In my own district, we used these powerful tools to cut street homelessness by nearly 50% in one year," Raman said in her statement. "While there is much more work to do to fix a very broken system, I am so proud of the work I was able to do as chair."

"Housing affordability and homelessness are among the most urgent challenges facing Los Angeles and they demand committed leadership. It is my hope that the Council will not allow political considerations to prevent us from making the progress that Angelenos deserve," Raman's statement concluded.

In July, the 2026 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count showed that homelessness increased by 3.4% in the city to an estimated 45,194. It was the first increase in homelessness following two straight years of decreases, according to data collected by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

Raman noted the decrease in her district, saying homelessness is "not an unsolveable problem. It's a mismanaged one."

In response, Bass' campaign said Raman claimed credit for the decrease in her district while avoiding the rest of the city's data as chair of the council's Homelessness and Housing Committee.

Bass' campaign argued the decrease in Raman's district could be attributed to work done by the mayor's Inside Safe program.

"Nithya Raman is taking credit for the results of Inside Safe while campaigning against it," Alex Stack, a spokesman for Bass' campaign, said in a previous statement.

But Raman told The Times there had only been three Inside Safe operations in her district, and that her committee has been stifled by inaction from Bass.

Bass, who is seeking a second term, continues to campaign on what she has deemed as progress in her first term -- part of which includes moving unhoused people into temporary housing.

Bass has also argued that federal and state spending reductions for homelessness programs led to more people living on the streets in L.A.