As the election season draws closer, political tensions have risen to a near-boiling point, and even politicians’ homes aren’t spared the controversy. One mayoral candidate from California likely got the shock of her life after dozens of people pretending to be homeless suddenly camped outside her house. Their goal? To make the candidate see what they’re going through when dealing with the homeless population of Los Angeles.
The political stunt took place in mayoral candidate Nithya Raman’s home in Los Angeles, California. An anonymous civilian allegedly organized the gathering, where people brought tents and makeshift creature comforts on the street outside Nithya’s home. It’s not clear whether all the individuals gathered there were homeless, but the organizer whom Fox11 LA interviewed claimed that many of them were only posing as homeless people to prove a point.
“This is happening all over the city and we brought it to her doorstep so she can see what other people are going through,” claims the alleged organizer. “We’re basically doing a parody ad for her, like if we were in charge of her campaign, this was the ad we’re going to make,” he added. The organizer also claims he never met Spencer Pratt, Raman’s main rival in the mayoral race for Los Angeles, though he’s apparently a big fan of Pratt’s work. Meanwhile, the fake homeless encampment was supposedly funded through donations.
The homeless encampment stunt comes after Raman was accused of inaction towards the homeless population problem in LA. She faced intense backlash and was booed at a public meeting for defending her vote against an ordinance that would have prohibited homeless encampments within 500 feet of schools and daycare centers.
People online are split about the California campers
Raman herself has seen the fake homeless encampment outside her home and has addressed it, saying, “this has gone far beyond what I expected the campaign to be about.” The fake homeless camp stunt has also sparked a debate online regarding the intent and integrity of the organizers. “You shouldn’t be an idiot and act homeless when you’re not. That’s an ignorant, uneducated insult to those who can’t help it. Not all homeless people are uneducated and drug abusers,” rants one X commenter.
Others are still criticizing Raman, circling back to the statements she made during the aforementioned public California meeting. “She is so deranged! It was okay to have homeless tents 500 ft from schools but not 500 ft from her children. She should have been doing more to clean up the homeless situation the last 10 hrs instead of using the money to advance her own agendas!” according to another commenter. At the time of writing, it appears the fake homeless encampment is there to stay since the street they camped on is public property.
