City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who is running for Los Angeles mayor, spent Monday afternoon bashing a plan proposed in Mayor Karen Bass’s fiscal year 2026-2027 budget to allow residents to use second homes as short-term rentals, a practice currently prohibited.

“It was buried in her budget,” Raman said. “There was no prior notice, no council input, no public process, no market studies, no feasibility assessment, just a proposal dropped into a 524-page budget to loosen our short term rental rules and let homeowners convert apartments and second homes into tourist rentals.”

Councilmembers will be debating the proposal at the Planning and Land Use Management Committee meeting Tuesday.

“In other cities, they are taxing people who own second homes. In LA we are cutting deals from the corporations that profit from them,” Raman said.

She said that the current rule that prohibits second residences from being used as short-term rentals stems from learning “the hard way what happens when” those regulations were not in place.

“Homeowners convert apartments into tourist hotels instead of housing for renters here,” Raman said. “Renters get pushed out, housing supply shrinks and rents go up for everyone.”

Proponents are hoping that more short-term rentals will increase tax revenue and supply housing during the 2028 Olympic Games.

Raman spoke with Annenberg Media after the press conference at Woodbine Park in Palms to give her pitch to college voters, saying she is the only candidate “seriously fighting” for an affordable LA.

“My pitch to every college student here in the city of Los Angeles is I am fighting for you,” Raman said. “I want you to stay here. I want you to be creative here, I want you to build your lives here and I will do everything in my power to make it affordable for you to do that.”

When asked if she had a favorite in the race for California governor, she said she was still deciding.

“I don’t think debates are that useful but I’m reading their policy platforms and trying to make up my mind,” Raman said.

The nonpartisan mayoral primary is set for June 2, and ballots have already arrived at voters’ homes.