Raman Says She's Out as Chair of LA's Homelessness Committee — and the Committee May Be Split in Two

The councilmember, who is challenging Mayor Karen Bass in November, says the removal is political. Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson has not commented.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman will lose her seat as chair of the City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee, she confirmed in a campaign video Monday, according to LAist. Raman says the removal is politically motivated.

The timing is the story. Raman is running for mayor against incumbent Karen Bass in the November election, and she has chaired the committee since 2023 — a post LAist describes as carrying considerable power and responsibility over the city’s housing and homelessness policy.

What the reporting says is coming

LAist reports that the California Post reported Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson is planning to announce this week that the city will split the committee into two — one on housing, one on homelessness — and that Raman will lead neither.

That is a structural change, not just a personnel one. Splitting a single committee in two divides the agenda, the hearing calendar and the gavel that decides what gets heard and when. Harris-Dawson, described by LAist as a longtime political ally of Bass, represents a large portion of South Los Angeles. He did not immediately respond to LAist’s inquiry late Monday.

Raman’s account

Raman framed the move in her campaign ad as retaliation, tying it to her push for scrutiny of the city’s homelessness spending.

“I called for an audit of our homelessness programs in Los Angeles, and now I’ve been removed as Chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee,” Raman said, per LAist. “I might be getting punished for running against Mayor Bass, but Angelenos are the ones paying the price for these political games.”

What is not yet established

The desk read the LAist account closely, and several things a City Hall reader would want are not in it. Specifically:

• No incoming chair has been named for either of the two proposed committees.
• No formal announcement from the Council President had been made as of LAist’s Monday evening publication; the split is described as planned for this week.
• Harris-Dawson has not given his own account of why the committee is being divided, having not responded to LAist’s inquiry by late Monday.
• The reporting does not lay out which pending housing or homelessness items were on the committee’s calendar when the change was set in motion, or where those items land after a split.

Those gaps matter because they determine whether this is a reorganization with policy consequences or a reshuffle of titles. A committee chair sets agendas; two chairs set two, and the question of which body inherits which item is the question that decides how fast anything moves.

Raman’s characterization — that the removal follows her call for an audit — is her own, made in a campaign video during a mayoral race against the incumbent whose longtime ally leads the council. Until Harris-Dawson explains the split and names who will run the two committees, that is one side of a story with at least two.