Street homelessness went up in Los Angeles. In Nithya Raman's district, it was nearly cut in half

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Set us as preferred Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who is running for mayor against incumbent Karen Bass, seized on significant decreases in street homelessness in her district Friday while blasting increases citywide.Street homelessness — people living outdoors or in their vehicles — went down by 49% in Raman’s district compared to the previous year, she said at a press conference Friday.Citywide, street homelessness increased nearly 8%, while overall homelessness, which includes those living in shelters and other temporary facilities, increased 3.4%, according to numbers from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s January point-in-time count that were released Friday.The contrast between her district and the city overall offered Raman an angle to present herself as more effectively handling the homelessness crisis than Bass.An estimated 45,194 homeless people live in the city, with about 36% of them in shelters, according to LAHSA.“Far fewer people living outside.Far more people indoors,” Raman, who has served on the council since 2020 and is chair of the City Council’s housing and homelessness committee, said at the press conference.

“As mayor, that is the approach, and the results, that I want to deliver citywide.”The numbers across the city were a setback for Bass, who has made homelessness one of her signature issues and previously touted two straight years of drops in street homelessness.Raman cited her office’s homelessness team and their “aggressive interventionist” approach as reasons her district — which extends from Los Feliz and Silver Lake into Studio City, Sherman Oaks and other parts of the San Fernando Valley — did not suffer the same increases as other parts of the city.She said her team is very familiar with homeless individuals in the district and knows many...