Los Angeles' incoming socialist mayor has made a bold promise to the city ahead of the 2028 Olympics, but one local business leader says it will not survive contact with reality.
Mayor-elect Nithya Raman has pledged to cut the number of people sleeping in tents and homeless encampments by at least 50% before the 2028 Summer Olympics. Homelessness was a central theme of her campaign, and Raman, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), intends to expand shelter and housing options while stretching "every dollar as far as possible."
John Alle, a business owner and co-founder of the Santa Monica Coalition, is not convinced. Speaking with Fox News Digital, he argued that Raman will not be able to "hide" the city's homelessness crisis from the visitors who arrive for the Games and questioned whether her plan can deliver lasting results.
"I don't think we're going to be able to hide that before the crowds," Alle said, adding that the city has become a "third-world country." He described a city already suffering the consequences of a crisis left to fester.
"We're not hiding it now. We're seeing tourists being attacked in Santa Monica, we're seeing tourists being attacked in LA. Our tourism, everything that funds our general fund, our retail sales taxes are all down. The morale of the police, which we need, is down."
Alle predicted that Raman's approach would amount to a temporary fix. In his view, homeless residents will be cleared from the streets before the Olympics only to return once the spotlight moves on.
"When the Olympics come, they'll be picked up, they'll be bused, they'll be sent elsewhere, and they'll wander right back after the three-week Olympic and Paralympic events." It is a scenario that would leave taxpayers footing the bill for a short-lived cleanup.
Outgoing Mayor Karen Bass accepted the Olympic flag at the closing ceremony in Paris two years ago, formally taking over hosting duties for Los Angeles. The 2028 Games will be the first held in the city since 1984.
The numbers have moved in the wrong direction. According to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority's 2026 annual count, homelessness rose 3.4% in the city of Los Angeles and 1.2% across the wider region, reversing two straight years of declines under Bass.
That raises an obvious question about how Raman intends to meet her own target. By the end of her first term, she has pledged to expand housing, shelter capacity and rental assistance to eliminate long-term encampments.
Raman has previously called the city's "desensitization to homelessness" a "moral failing." Her plan would send medical teams directly into encampments to provide mental health and addiction treatment and to help people transition into long-term housing or care within 90 days.
She has also criticized Bass' Inside Safe program, which often places homeless people in expensive hotels and motels. Raman instead wants to steer that money toward cheaper alternatives such as rental vouchers.
Other elements of her proposal include sending unarmed crisis response teams instead of police officers to certain emergencies. She also wants to audit stalled housing projects and tighten oversight of homelessness spending.
For all the ambition, Alle doubts the plan will produce meaningful change, arguing that city leadership has gone "from bad to worse." He sees little daylight between the incoming and outgoing administrations.
"It's not that much different than Mayor Karen Bass's plan," Alle said. That is hardly a reassuring assessment for residents who watched the problem grow under the current mayor.
Alle manages roughly 1 million square feet of commercial property across Los Angeles and says he sees the crisis firsthand. He raised concerns about its toll on local businesses and the people who work for them.
He warned that treating homeless people where they live on the streets will only drag the crisis out. Many Angelenos, he said, now avoid parts of the city that have been left untouched.
"Pick up the individuals and take them to their facilities away from the parks, away from kids, away from seniors," he said. His prescription puts public safety and families ahead of street-level services.
Alle also called for transparency over how the city has handled more than $1 billion in homelessness funding before any more taxpayer dollars are committed. "She's got a billion-dollar problem on her hands right now, and she knows," he said.
Raman chaired the City Council's Housing and Homelessness Committee from 2023 until she was removed from the post this year during her mayoral campaign. Alle said she will have to explain where the money went, though he credited her push to investigate the spending.
"To her credit, she wants to audit every single non-profit and every single agency that spent money, including the non-profits that are supported by the city with taxpayer funds for programs," he said. Whether that audit leads to real accountability will be one of the first tests of her tenure.
One of the biggest red flags in Raman's plan, according to Alle, is the placement of supportive housing near families and children. He added that some facilities do not require residents to stay sober.
"There is no commitment for anyone not to use drugs while they're there," he said. For parents living near such sites, that is a serious concern.
Alle pointed to Raman's past opposition to restrictions on camping in public spaces and near schools as evidence that her approach is not "aggressive enough." He made clear he expects little to change.
"I don't see the solutions that have been put forth that could work being used and so I'm not optimistic," he said. In his view, the city keeps passing over measures that have a real chance of working.
Alle described Los Angeles as having a drug and mental health problem rather than a homelessness problem. He said the city must stop making life on the streets more comfortable for those who refuse help.
"Until those two issues are addressed, we're not gonna solve homelessness," he said. He urged Raman to take a more practical path by moving outreach services off the streets and ending the city's sanctuary city status for good.
Despite his criticism, Alle said he wants the new mayor to get it right. "Of course I want her to succeed," he said. "If Nithya succeeds, we all succeed."
Raman defeated Bass in the midterm elections and will take office in December as mayor of a city of roughly 4 million people. Her team and LA28 were asked for comment, and with the Games less than two years away, residents will soon see whether her promise holds.
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