According to CalMatters Housing, Los Angeles has seen an uptick in its unhoused population after making progress in the previous two years. The latest count showed an increase from the prior year, though the current numbers still remain somewhat below where they were when Mayor Karen Bass took office. This reversal of momentum is especially significant timing as Bass heads into a reelection campaign this November.
The increase in street homelessness has become a central issue in the mayoral race. Raman, who is challenging Bass, used the new data to criticize the mayor's record on addressing homelessness, calling it a failure. Meanwhile, Bass has been campaigning on themes of public order and safety, emphasizing her administration's efforts to reduce encampments and enforce street regulations. This positioning is somewhat unconventional, as Bass is taking a more traditional law-and-order stance while Raman, a democratic socialist, is focusing on housing construction and addressing root causes through development and services.
The political dynamics of this race are noteworthy because they flip some traditional patterns in Los Angeles politics. Raman recently secured the endorsement of the Western State Carpenters union, the same group that backed Bass four years ago, and she's emphasizing the need for less government regulation and more private construction. She's also highlighted that homelessness in her own council district dropped significantly even as it rose citywide, though Bass points out that her Inside Safe program may have contributed to improvements in Raman's area.
There's an interesting complication in assigning responsibility here. Raman serves as chair of the council's Housing and Homelessness Committee, giving her citywide influence on these issues, not just within her own district. This makes it difficult to clearly separate the two candidates' accountability for current conditions. Raman has pledged to cut street homelessness in half by the time of the 2028 Olympics, but she's deflected questions about why more comprehensive solutions aren't being implemented now, pointing instead to the mayor's responsibility to answer for that gap.
What I'm seeing locally here in the Bay Area is that homelessness and housing policy are becoming increasingly central to municipal politics everywhere, not just Los Angeles. Our own region has been grappling with similar challenges for years, and I'm noticing that voters are demanding clearer accountability from their leaders about what's actually being done versus what's being promised. The tension between emergency responses and long-term systemic solutions that CalMatters is highlighting in the LA race is something our own political candidates and officials are going to face more directly in upcoming elections.
