A staged homeless encampment appeared outside Nithya Raman's Silver Lake-area home over Memorial Day weekend. The protest has reignited a controversy that traces back to a debate two years ago.
LA City Council member and mayoral candidate Nithya Raman faces backlash after a staged homeless encampment appeared outside her home. The controversy traces back to a 2024 Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association debate where she dismissed concerns about encampments near schools.
A staged homeless encampment appeared outside Nithya Raman's Silver Lake-area home over Memorial Day weekend. The protest has reignited a controversy that traces back to a debate two years ago.
Raman, a Los Angeles City Council member and mayoral candidate, spoke about the incident on a podcast with comedian Adam Conover on Wednesday. She said she woke to the sound of commotion outside her window and saw people setting up what she described as a fake homeless encampment.
"I have two little kids. They didn't see it, luckily, this morning," Raman told Conover. "But you know, I feel bad that I'm even subjecting them to that at all."
The backlash connects directly to remarks Raman made at a 2024 Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association debate. According to the Daily Mail and Breitbart, Raman was asked about a proposed law that would require homeless encampments to be at least 500 feet away from daycare centers and schools.
Raman said she had already voted against the measure. She told the crowd she did not think a child would be safer because a tent was 500 feet away from a school. The audience booed. She won reelection that cycle.
Footage of Raman rolling her eyes at the crowd during that debate has circulated online alongside her podcast comments about the staged encampment at her own home.
Spencer Pratt, the reality TV star running for mayor, shared the podcast clip on social media. He spliced it with video from the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association debate.
"Nithya thinks this election is just about bike lanes," Pratt wrote on X. "This election is about saving our city from rampant fraud, drug addicts destroying our streets, and moms feeling unsafe everywhere they go. Nithya is a deeply unserious person, and she doesn't have it in her to do this job."
Raman also drew criticism for saying she thought the mayoral race would focus on issues like bike lanes and transportation. According to the Daily Mail, polling consistently shows homelessness, crime, and public safety rank far above transportation among voter concerns in Los Angeles.
Footage obtained by the California Post showed people climbing out of tents, staging an open-air barbecue, and walking around the neighborhood. Residents recorded the scene.
One of the organizers told a local news outlet that they brought the encampment to Raman's doorstep so she could see what other people are going through, according to Breitbart.
The controversy comes as the LA City Council Housing and Homelessness Committee, which Raman chairs, received a $4 million state grant to clean up a sprawling encampment along the LA River. The camp is home to roughly 90 people.
According to the Daily Mail, residents said city officials had taken no action to relocate people living at the camp since receiving the funds. A spokesman for Raman said the grant had been "caught in administrative and contracting processes" and that the money would begin going toward the LA River encampment by the end of the month.
The Los Angeles mayoral primary takes place Tuesday, June 2. According to the Breitbart report, polls show no clear frontrunner. Karen Bass, Spencer Pratt, and Nithya Raman are all bunched together. Any combination of the three could land in the top two and advance to the November 3 runoff.
The Los Angeles Times called the race "the most consequential and uncertain Los Angeles mayor's race in a generation."
This article was generated with AI assistance.