All of them want to solve this problem.

Eric Garcetti.

Karen Bass.

None of them came close.

Each mayor invested a lot of money and manpower, and each made progress. It’s fair to say that together they have helped thousands of people turn their lives around. But the problem doesn’t stop there. Waves keep coming, and more than 40,000 people are currently homeless in the city.

So Bass was eliminated and Raman joined after a controversial campaign in which he attacked Bass’s strategy (which she helped implement) as too costly and ineffective.

Really?

Bear with me, because I’m about to explain why I have some hope that Raman might do a better job on homelessness than her predecessors. But I cringe when I hear such grand declarations.

Why?

In 2013, Garcetti vowed to end chronic homelessness, and in 2018 he said: “We can cut this problem in half in five years. In ten years… we can end life on the streets.”

Have you ever noticed how these exaggerated promises come true?

The hard truth is that homelessness is caused by a host of issues that are beyond any mayor’s complete control. Its roots lie in economic inequality, high housing costs and lack of treatment for mental illness and addiction. A mayor can’t magically clear the decks without help from federal, state and county allies, and from strong partnerships on the City Council.

Raman wants to mothball the program and use short-term rental vouchers, which she claims would be far cheaper and more effective. She wants to open the door for City Controller Kenneth Mejia to audit every dollar spent on homeless people. She said she would demand a comprehensive accounting of county services, direct Medi-Cal funds to more street medical teams and invest in shared housing and case management.

It’s one thing to put a plan down on paper. Shoving goodwill into the teeth of the City Hall grinder without completely crushing it is a much harder trick. It remains to be seen whether Rahman can win over council members who have shunned her and unanimously supported Bass.

But Raman has some strengths, including a tendency to challenge expectations. She blitzed two incumbents, first winning a parliamentary seat and then unseating Bass. Then there’s her urban planning education and her work as one of the co-founders of the SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition.这让她对这一挑战以及政府脱节的应对措施进行了街头研究，然后她领导了市议会的无家可归者委员会。

“I think situational awareness” has been helpful to her, said Louis Abramson, a Hollywood resident, RAND Corporation researcher and SELAH board chair. “She’ll be able to argue from a perspective of expertise.”

Abramson also hopes Raman will provide more affordable housing.

At SELAH, and in Raman’s council district, building meaningful relationships with clients has been a central mission. It’s not always quick or easy. Some are ready to lend a helping hand; Others are severely damaged in multiple ways and it takes time.

Turning the tables on homelessness doesn’t just end with a temporary address. Long-term case management is crucial, as is a sense of purpose and belonging. The formerly homeless people I recently met at Chrysalis, all of them working now, and all of them housed, were a testament to this idea.

In the case of my musician friend Nathaniel, it took me, his friends at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and various outreach workers for a year to convince him to move indoors 21 years ago. He now lives in a nursing home where he listens to music for hours a day and has a series of photos on the wall, including those of Beethoven, Bach and another man named “B.”

Actress halle berry.

Abramson said my relationship with Nathaniel “is not an accessory. It’s your business. I’ve come to believe that human connection is a necessary prerequisite to that.”

Indeed, we tend too much to think of unfolding human disasters in purely statistical terms. But there’s more truth in people’s stories than in their status, and more community buy-in when we recognize ourselves in each other.

steve.lopez@latimes.com