Nithya Raman abandons $4M for homeless encampment cleanup during run for LA mayor

Mayoral candidate Nithya Raman has left millions of dollars on the table to clean up a dangerous homeless encampment while she campaigns on fixing Los Angeles’ homelessness crisis.

Roughly 90 people are living along the LA River in tents, storm drains and makeshift shelters surrounded by trash, polluted runoff and growing safety concerns.

A $4,011,357 state grant tied to Raman’s project to clean up the area still had not been spent as conditions along the encampment continued worsening, according to May 27 records reviewed by The California Post.

The funding came through California’s Encampment Resolution Fund, a state program designed to move people out of encampments and into housing.

At the same time, Raman’s campaign website blasts Los Angeles for failing to use homelessness funding effectively and lacking the “rigor or accountability” taxpayers deserve despite the city spending hundreds of millions of dollars each year on homelessness programs.

The sprawling encampment has existed for years, with some residents telling The California Post they have lived along the riverbed for decades.

Community advocate Cameron Flanagan, who has spent years working with people living along the river, told The Post she knew about the funding for the encampment and repeatedly begged Raman’s office for help as conditions continued spiraling.

“We have seen two people die in the last few months,” Flanagan said.

Flanagan described the riverbed as a revolving door of jail, addiction, homelessness and untreated mental illness.

“There are guys down there who are fleeing warrants. We’ve got people who returned from prison who go back down there,” she said. “They’re just cropping up again and again and again, and it’s very dangerous down there.”

Raman’s office and project partners secured the funding to expand a homelessness initiative across a 19-mile stretch of the LA River from Reseda to Los Feliz after a similar 2021 effort helped move 64 people living near Los Feliz and Griffith Park into stable housing.

The grant application described people living in culverts, storm drains, bridge rafters and isolated river pockets officials admitted had been “largely ignored by government agencies.”

“The dangers for people living along the river are significant,” the application said, citing flood risks and prior emergency rescues involving unhoused residents.

Under the proposal, LA Family Housing would conduct daily outreach with the goal of serving 90 people, moving 75 into interim housing and transitioning all 90 into permanent housing.

Four outreach specialists and 60 housing subsidy slots were also included in the plan.

But during a March 29 visit to the encampment, the California Post found many of the same dangerous conditions still entrenched along the riverbank.

The Post witnessed people washing clothes in contaminated water as outreach workers and advocates warn the riverbed.

Some residents told The Post they had already cycled through shelters and treatment programs before ending up back at the encampment.

One woman, who identified herself as Ises, described battling meth addiction and mental illness while surviving along the river with little sanitation or protection from the elements.

Days later, the situation turned even more grim.

On April 2, emergency crews discovered a body inside a tent at the encampment.

At the time, Raman’s office acknowledged the death.

“This is a devastating loss of life and one that underscores what’s at stake when we move too slowly,” Raman’s office said. “When there are delays in delivering services or getting people into housing, the consequences are not abstract, they are real, and they are fatal.”

Flanagan questioned why millions intended for the river corridor have yet to produce visible outreach or housing activity on the ground.

“What are they waiting for if homelessness is such an emergency?” she said.

She also said the only major outreach response she has witnessed came after media attention focused on the encampment.

“The only time I’ve seen Healthcare in Action respond out there was after your news reports,” Flanagan said. “I haven’t seen them since.”

The California Post reached out to Raman’s office for comment on why the grant money remains untouched.

Primary elections are set for June 2, with candidates needing more than 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff.