LOS ANGELES — It’s the crisis at the core of the Los Angeles mayoral race: homelessness. This week Hope The Mission, a housing and homelessness nonprofit, hosted forums for candidates Councilwoman Nithya Raman and current Mayor of LA, Karen Bass.

Gubernatorial candidates Steve Hilton and Xavier Becerra were also invited, but only Hilton attended on Wednesday. The goal of the forums was to discuss housing over pancakes at The Original Pantry Cafe, which is owned by Hope the Mission.

The forums stretched over two days, with Raman speaking Wednesday and Bass on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Raman spoke out against Mayor Bass’ signature Inside Safe program.

When asked about the financing of Inside Safe, Raman said she had attempted to speak with the mayor.

“We tried over and over again to rein in the cost of Inside Safe. I tried by submitting memos directly to the mayor, through discussions with the mayor, through discussion with the mayor, that costs like this would undermine a system that we were dependent on the taxpayers to fund,” said Raman.

On Thursday, Bass agreed that costs do need to come down, but she defended Inside Safe.

“Inside safe is too expensive, that’s why we immediately started looking for ways to reduce the cost. Unfortunately, my opponent is just fundamentally dishonest when she talks about the cost of Inside Safe. Which, by the way, she has been completely dependent on,” Bass said.

During her forum, Raman promised that if elected mayor, she would call for an audit of the city’s homeless services alongside the elected LA City controller.

The current controller is Kenneth Mejia.

“We need to audit the system and so on day one, I would ensure that every dollar going into our homelessness system is audited in partnership with our city controller. I would make sure that we are spending on the programs that work to get people off the streets,” Raman said.

On Thursday Bass said that the city's homeless service programs have been audited and that audits by the city controller of Inside Safe present a conflict of interest.

“I do not believe that elected officials should be auditing each other because that opens up the door for a political agenda, not an independent audit,” Bass said.

Both Bass and Raman have said that moving forward the city must have more control over homeless services.

For many years, the city has contracted out that work to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, or LAHSA.