Los Angeles City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson is planning to remove Councilwoman Nithya Raman as chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee amid ongoing scrutiny over the city’s housing initiatives, according to reports by The Los Angeles Times and The California Post. The leadership shake-up arrives as Raman campaigns to unseat incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in the November mayoral election.
Harris-Dawson intends to split the current committee into two separate panels, according to sources cited by The California Post and The Los Angeles Times. Councilwoman Ysabel Jurado is expected to lead a newly created homelessness committee, while Councilwoman Imelda Padilla is slated to head a separate housing panel. Raman, who has helmed the unified committee since 2023, will not lead either of the new bodies.
The restructuring follows mounting criticism of Raman’s leadership record on homelessness, which forms a centerpiece of her mayoral campaign against Bass. Alex Stack, a spokesperson for the Bass campaign, criticized Raman’s signature program providing time-limited housing subsidies, pointing to city records showing the initiative cost more than $60 million while placing just three households into permanent housing by late June. Stack also told The Los Angeles Times that Raman canceled committee meetings for weeks, missed votes, and failed to deliver on shelter goals.
Raman defended her record in a video released Monday afternoon, stating that she is being punished for mounting a mayoral challenge against the incumbent mayor. “Mayor Bass and her allies are protecting what we all know is a deeply broken status quo, one that is not serving any person here in the city of Los Angeles,” Raman said.
Former city officials noted the unusual timing of the committee reassignment during an active election cycle. Former Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine told The California Post that council reassignments are rare outside of voluntary requests, describing the timing as particularly damaging for a sitting council member running for mayor. Zev Yaroslavsky, a former City Councilmember and county supervisor now serving as chair of the Los Angeles Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, told The Los Angeles Times that it is difficult to view the move as entirely disconnected from local politics.
The city’s overall homeless population increased by 3.4% to 45,194 individuals in recent counts, following two straight years of decreases, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. While citywide numbers rose, the unsheltered homeless population within Raman’s district decreased by 49%, a statistic Raman has frequently highlighted during her campaign. Bass and her supporters have attributed the drop in Raman’s district to the mayor’s signature Inside Safe program, while Raman has argued that mayoral inaction has stifled her committee’s legislative efforts.
Upcoming City Council Leadership Changes
The leadership reorganization shifts oversight of Los Angeles housing policy to new council hands. Councilwoman Ysabel Jurado, a Democratic Socialists of America member representing Council District 14, is expected to take charge of the homelessness panel. Jurado’s district encompasses Skid Row, downtown Los Angeles, and Boyle Heights, an area historically containing the city’s largest concentration of homelessness. Councilwoman Imelda Padilla, who represents District 6 in the San Fernando Valley, is set to chair the newly separated housing committee, according to reporting by The California Post.
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