Has LA homeless policy reached peak absurdity?

The California Post reported that a city homeless initiative championed by Councilwoman Nithya Raman has spent more than $60 million to fill three subsidized apartments with homeless Angelenos.

Meanwhile, City Hall still pumps hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars into the scandal-marred LA Homeless Services Authority –– despite years of talk about the need for change.

And that’s just the start.

Raman’s Time Limited Subsidy Program, set up in September, aimed to fill 2,000 apartments with homeless people, to get them off the streets. As of late last month, the program had filled just three units.

You can see where this is going.

The scheme is purportedly less expensive than Mayor Karen Bass’ signature Inside Safe program, which pays exorbitant rates to temporarily stash some of LA’s homeless –– who numbered 43,000 at last count –– in hotel rooms.

But not only has Raman’s initiative not been cost-effective; it hasn’t been effective at all.

And then there’s the city’s dismal record with the LA Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA).

Even as Bass appoints five of the 10 members who govern the authority (with LA County selecting the remainder), the city has appeared powerless to fix the agency –– or leave it.

LA County in 2025 all but shunned the organization, creating an in-house department to address homelessness and housing.

And this year, the Trump administration yanked $200 million in federal funding for LAHSA as the feds probe the agency for alleged financial mismanagement, conflicts of interest and poor contract oversight.

At the time, Vice President JD Vance said, “the fraud and corruption ends today.”

Meanwhile, LA just keeps whistling past the scandals.

The feds and the county may have retreated, but Los Angeles knowingly perpetuates the agency’s failure.

Think about that.

City officials have yet to even study, as promised, the prospect of shifting spending away form LAHSA.

While the council has floated the idea of someday bringing the LAHSA’s assignments in-house, does anyone trust an inept, inert City Hall to complete this work effectively?

This is a group that just spent $60 million to move homeless people into three apartments.

It’s also a group that more broadly pours billions into a homeless industrial complex –– funneling taxpayer money to nonprofits that benefit financially by entrenching homelessness rather than abating it.

Also part of the mess: Homeless Angelenos were allegedly bribed and exploited by interested parties as part of a ballot-harvesting operation for Bass and Raman in the June 2 primary.  

Instead of this sketchiness –– and all the wheel-spinning failure –– LA voters should demand a different, common-sense approach to homelessness.

The city’s “housing first” policy will continually fail because it all but ignores the causes of most homelessness. 

By emphasizing housing over sobriety and mental-health treatment, LA moves in circles, squanders tax dollars –– and misses the point. 

Rather than doing the hard work of rehabilitation, the city pays exorbitant sums for Band-Aids and incompetence, and then crows about it.

The dysfunction is acute; the results, dismal. 

City homeless policy is, to borrow from Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, a “merry-go-round from hell.”

Peak absurdity? Could be.

Homeless Angelenos need real relief –– and so do taxpayers. 

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters