Los Angeles is under growing scrutiny for spending $20 million — $625,000 per unit — on a former Ramada Inn that sat empty for four years while the people it displaced remain unaccounted for. The scandal has sharpened a broader debate about whether LA's homelessness and housing policies are structurally broken, with mayoral candidate Nithya Raman's platform drawing sharp criticism for trying to combine rent freezes with pro-construction goals — a combination developers and economists say is financially incoherent. Both stories point to the same problem: the city keeps spending more money to house fewer people.
Los Angeles emptied a building that was already housing people. Four years and $625,000 per unit later, it still houses nobody.
NYC and LA progressives promise rent freezes plus new construction. Every city that's tried gets ghost apartments instead.