Los Angeles is about to test a new kind of housing politics

Elected in 2022, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass faced significant challenges in addressing the city's homelessness and housing affordability crises. Bass campaigned on promises to tackle these issues, but her administration undermined affordable housing policies and resisted state efforts to compel more housing production. She lost the 2026 election to Nithya Raman, a rising progressive star and YIMBY.

Los Angeles has the highest home-price-to-household-income ratio in the U.S. and the second-lowest homes per adult among major cities. Its suburbanized and car-oriented infrastructure makes it a testing ground for whether sprawling cities can overcome housing shortages. While there is a general agreement on the need for more homes, political discipline has been lacking.

Raman, with her background in housing reform, has gained support for her direct messaging on social media about the housing crisis. She criticized Bass's administration for a lack of urgency in addressing housing supply. Raman believes that the city has turned away from the issue altogether.

Despite her weak mayoral powers, Bass often made political choices to minimize her influence on housing. For example, she signed an executive order (ED1) to fast-track affordable housing developments, but later weakened it to exclude single-family neighborhoods, which make up three-quarters of LA's residential land. She also opposed a California law (SB 79) requiring denser housing near transit stops and worked to delay its most significant upzoning.

After the 2025 fires, Bass reportedly pressured Newsom to restrict another law (SB 9) that allows modest densification of single-family lots.

Raman's mayoralty is seen as an important experiment for the rest of the country. Breaking from Bass's approach could help crack open a way forward for housing reform in other affected cities, despite the challenges and political pressures she will face.