Kevin De León and Nithya Raman housed homeless people. Will it matter during the election

Nithya Raman received a spot on the Los Angeles Metropolis Council 4 years in the past by promising to ease the town’s homelessness disaster.

Now, the council member factors to her work decreasing the variety of folks residing on the road in her Silver Lake-to-Reseda district as she runs for reelection.

Los Angeles Homeless Providers Authority information present “unsheltered homelessness” dropped 7% in her district over a two-year interval. The time period consists of anybody residing within the open or in a tent or automotive.

Councilmember Kevin de León can be waging a reelection campaign and sending out mailers saying that homelessness dropped in his district.

Unsheltered homelessness dropped 7% in his Northeast L.A. district final yr, in keeping with unofficial LAHSA outcomes.

Raman and De León aren’t considered as mates or political allies. However each are in the identical boat: waging a tricky reelection marketing campaign whereas touting progress of their districts on homelessness.

Such a message can bolster a marketing campaign in a metropolis the place polls present that homelessness is the No. 1 concern. Political marketing consultant Brian Van Riper mentioned voters will even weigh the town’s success on how they really feel strolling round their neighborhoods and whether or not there are indicators of homelessness.

“Voters vote as a lot on feeling and emotion as they do on statistic and truth,” mentioned Van Riper, who shouldn’t be concerned within the race.

Two elements make it laborious this election yr to trace Metropolis Corridor’s progress on the disaster.

Some Metropolis Council district boundaries had been modified considerably following the town’s 2021 redistricting course of.

On the identical time, the L.A. Homeless Providers Authority, the town and county company that oversees homelessness, didn’t launch council district-specific homelessness numbers in 2023.

Unsheltered homelessness grew 15% in Los Angeles in 2023 in contrast with 2022, in keeping with LAHSA. For the reason that 2015 rely, general homelessness has elevated by 80% within the metropolis.

Jason Ward, an economist on the Santa Monica-based Rand Corp., a nonprofit analysis institute, has been finding out homelessness in Hollywood, Skid Row and Venice since 2021.

He mentioned it’s “most likely cheap” to infer that the variety of citywide encampments has declined given the varied applications underway, together with Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Protected program, which locations folks into resort and motel rooms.

“Even in Skid Row, there’s a moderation and a flat pool of individuals, fairly than an upward pattern,” he mentioned.

On a windy morning in Could 2023 two staffers from Raman’s workplace joined homelessness outreach staff to go to a collection of ragged tents alongside the L.A. River’s concrete banks.

The group was there to introduce themselves, a part of the method of attempting to coax folks to maneuver into shelters.

This system, launched with state and federal funds, is without doubt one of the ways in which Raman’s workplace has moved greater than 500 folks in her district into shelter, in keeping with her workplace.

Greater than a dozen main encampments in Raman’s district, together with a hall of RVs alongside Victory Boulevard in Reseda, had been cleared, in keeping with her workplace.

Month-to-month group occasions for the unhoused hosted by Raman’s workplace provide haircuts, showers, and entry to identification playing cards and shelter.

Raman, who chairs the council’s homelessness committee, mentioned the work by her crew exhibits that the town “can truly handle avenue homelessness, which is what most Angelenos are involved about, way more successfully than we have now been up to now.”

Former Councilmember Mike Bonin mentioned that many council places of work have outreach groups however Raman’s employees acts as “housing navigators.”

“She has of us who’re on the market who’re constructing relationships over time and determining what kind of housing folks want,” Bonin mentioned.

Alex Perez will get a haircut in December on the Will and Ariel Durant Department Library in Hollywood — a service that’s a part of month-to-month occasions held in Raman’s council district.

(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Occasions)

The 7% drop within the unsheltered homeless inhabitants in Raman’s district was in 2022, in contrast with 2020. (LAHSA didn’t conduct a rely in 2021 due to COVID-19). On the identical time, the sheltered inhabitants greater than doubled throughout that interval.

Raman’s workplace credit the rise in sheltered inhabitants to extra beds being supplied by her district. These in shelter, akin to motel rooms, are nonetheless thought-about homeless by the town.

LAHSA’s 2022 numbers didn’t take note of the town’s current redistricting course of that affected Raman’s district. She misplaced some 40% of her constituents as Hancock Park, Park La Brea and different neighborhoods had been eliminated, and Encino and Reseda had been added to her district.

Submit-redistricting, LAHSA’s unofficial 2023 information confirmed that Raman’s district once more noticed a 7% drop in unsheltered homelessness in contrast with 2022’s rely. However given the dramatic change in her district boundaries, it’s troublesome to match the 2 years meaningfully.

The 2023 determine comes from uncooked information collected by LAHSA that was reviewed by The Occasions. The districts led by Raman and De León had been amongst six districts that noticed drops in unsheltered homeless populations, in keeping with that information.

LAHSA didn’t launch official council district-level information in 2023 due to considerations that the numbers weren’t exact, mentioned LAHSA spokesperson Ahmad Chapman.

Raman’s challengers in Tuesday’s main — Deputy Metropolis Atty. Ethan Weaver and software program engineer Levon “Lev” Baronian — each provide voters a distinct method on homelessness.

Each mentioned they might implement Municipal Code 41.18, the town’s anti-camping legislation, which permits police to manage the place folks can sit and sleep and is opposed by Raman.

Weaver has additionally criticized Raman’s dealing with of encampments around Cahuenga Boulevard and the Los Feliz Bridge Dwelling shelter. Neighbors have complained about security and sanitation at each places.

He additionally needs a phased withdrawal from LAHSA. The company, which is ruled by a 10-member board, was “designed to fail,” he mentioned. “For those who discuss to any of our council members, they may inform you that they can not give direct orders to this forms.”

Raman has argued towards a pullout from LAHSA, saying such a transfer would jeopardize federal funding meant to assist the town’s unhoused inhabitants.

Since taking workplace in 2020, De León has opened three tiny home villages — in Eagle Rock, Highland Park and Boyle Heights— transformed two motels into short-term housing in El Sereno, and accomplished a 77-bed shelter for girls and households in Boyle Heights.

Greater than 2,000 beds have been created in his district, in keeping with his workplace.

De León mentioned he pursued housing choices at the same time as he was the goal of recall makes an attempt, a few of them pushed by opposition to his push for interim homeless housing.

Councilmember Kevin De León greets folks in line for a meals distribution exterior his workplace in Eagle Rock.

(Christina Home/Los Angeles Occasions)

“I’ve constructed [homeless] housing in each a part of my district and I’ve constructed several types of housing as a result of there’s no single resolution to the disaster,” De León mentioned in an interview.

Tommy Newman, vice chairman of public affairs at United Manner of Higher L.A., mentioned that Northeast L.A. has traditionally lacked shelter choices, so it’s “good to see” De León’s push so as to add beds.

On a current morning, the council member inspected an alley in an industrial space of Boyle Heights the place his workplace was looking for to get folks into housing.

De León and Los Angeles Police Division Senior Lead Officer Johnny Altamirano described how thieves rent unhoused folks residing in tents to strip copper wire.

The thieves pay folks with crystal meth, a cycle that retains the unhoused folks on this space “drugged up,” mentioned the councilman, who needs extra L.A. County sources to assist homeless residents battle drug habit.

In marketing campaign mailers, De León says homelessness declined in District 14, which takes in Skid Row and half or all of Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights, Eagle Rock, El Sereno and Hermon.

The unofficial 2023 information from LAHSA present that the unsheltered inhabitants within the district dropped 7% final yr in contrast with 2022.

De León spokesperson Pete Brown mentioned LAHSA supplied numbers to the council member’s workplace displaying a slight lower in District 14’s general homelessness final yr. LAHSA’s Chapman mentioned that information was imprecise.

A few of the seven folks difficult De León within the main level to LAHSA’s 2022 information.

Unsheltered homelessness rose that yr 38% in contrast with 2020, mentioned one of many candidates, Assemblymember Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles).

Kevin de León goes over his speech notes earlier than opening of Arroyo Seco Tiny Dwelling Village on Oct. 21, 2021.

(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Occasions)

“Clearly, regardless of the incumbent has been doing isn’t sufficient,” Santiago mentioned.

One other candidate, tenant rights lawyer Ysabel Jurado, proposes group useful resource facilities to supply sanitation, healthcare and social providers for unhoused folks.

Occasions employees writers David Zahniser and Doug Smith contributed to this report.