A report from Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto claims that up to eighty-seven million dollars in taxpayer money directed to a tenant eviction defense program championed by mayoral candidate Nithya Raman cannot be reconciled with the nonprofit's public financial records.
The California Post first reported on the October ninth report, which targets the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, a nonprofit that provides free legal representation to tenants facing eviction. According to the report, LAFLA received one hundred fifty-seven point one million dollars from the city and county between 2020 and 2025, but between fifty-five million and eighty-seven million dollars of that total could not be matched to the organization's public financial filings.
Raman, who currently serves on the Los Angeles City Council and is challenging Mayor Karen Bass in this November's election, helped direct millions in city funds to LAFLA during her tenure as chair of the housing and homelessness committee. She has repeatedly pointed to the city's Right to Counsel program, which guarantees lower-income tenants a free lawyer when facing eviction, as a signature accomplishment. In a September interview with the Los Angeles Times, Raman described her work on tenant protections as probably her biggest achievement since joining the council.
The financial questions come as Raman's role in funding the program draws fresh attention. In March of 2026, she voted for a one hundred seventy-seven million dollar tenant-rights package that included one hundred six point six million dollars for LAFLA over three years — more than half the total appropriation. A portion of that money, forty-two point nine million dollars, comes from Measure ULA, the so-called mansion tax that voters approved in 2022 on high-dollar property sales to fund affordable housing and homelessness prevention.
That tax has itself become a subject of debate. A May 2026 RAND study tied Measure ULA to a thirty-one percent drop in high-value property sales and estimated it deterred construction of more than nine thousand homes, as the California Post previously reported.
The California Post has also reported on LAFLA's litigation against the city. The nonprofit has challenged city efforts to clear homeless encampments, remove abandoned recreational vehicles, and seize property during sidewalk cleanups.
The City Attorney's findings also carry implications for the race to replace Feldstein Soto, who is not seeking reelection. Marissa Roy, a deputy state attorney general, is running for the position with an endorsement from the Democratic Socialists of America. The group's Los Angeles chapter endorsed Raman for mayor in September.
The report's release has prompted responses from several political accounts and commentators across social media. The New York Post flagged the story Tuesday evening, highlighting the eighty-seven million dollar figure and pointing to Raman's role in steering city funds to the organization.
Conservative commentators and local political observers quickly picked up the thread, circulating the California Post's reporting and questioning the oversight of taxpayer dollars directed to a nonprofit that has simultaneously sued the city on multiple fronts.
Supporters of Raman and the Right to Counsel program have defended the initiative as a critical protection for vulnerable tenants facing displacement, though the financial discrepancies outlined in the City Attorney's report have not yet been formally addressed by Raman's campaign or by LAFLA.
Neither Raman's office nor the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles has issued a public statement responding to the specific figures cited in the October ninth report. The City Attorney's findings have not been independently audited or confirmed by an outside accounting firm, and no formal charges or legal action have been announced in connection with the discrepancies.
Next News Network could not independently verify the claims contained in the City Attorney's report.
The timing of the report places the issue squarely in the middle of the Los Angeles mayoral race, where Raman is seeking to unseat incumbent Karen Bass. Raman's campaign has emphasized her record on housing and tenant protections as central to her platform, making the financial questions surrounding the Right to Counsel program a potential vulnerability as voters head to the polls in November.
The City Attorney's office, led by Feldstein Soto, has not indicated whether further investigation or legal action will follow. Feldstein Soto is not running for reelection, leaving the City Attorney's office open to a contest between candidates with sharply different political alignments.
As the story continues to circulate among political accounts and commentators, the underlying questions about how nearly ninety million dollars in public funds were spent remain unresolved. The California Post's reporting has been amplified by the New York Post and other outlets, but the core allegations have yet to be confirmed through an independent audit or official accounting.
The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles has not publicly responded to the City Attorney's report. Raman's campaign has likewise remained silent on the specific findings, though the race's final weeks will likely force a response as the issue gains traction.
Our Take
Eighty-seven million dollars is not a rounding error. It is a staggering sum of taxpayer money that, according to the Los Angeles City Attorney, cannot be accounted for in the public financial records of a nonprofit that has received over one hundred fifty million dollars from the city and county. Nithya Raman staked her career on this program. She called it her biggest achievement. She voted for a package that funneled one hundred six million dollars to one organization. Now, that organization cannot explain where tens of millions of that money went.
This is what happens when government writes blank checks to progressive nonprofits with little to no oversight. The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles has sued the city over encampment sweeps and sidewalk cleanups while simultaneously cashing those same city checks. And the money keeps flowing — much of it from a mansion tax that a RAND study says tanked high-value property sales and deterred thousands of homes from being built. Los Angeles voters deserve answers. Raman wants a promotion to the mayor's office. Before they hand her the keys, they should demand to know where the money went.
