Housing supporters chanted and held up signs outside City Hall in support of Measure ULA. (photo by Edwin Folven)

Affordable housing advocates rallied outside Los Angeles City Hall on Jan. 13 with City Councilwomen Nithya Raman, 4th District, and Eunisses Hernandez, 1st District, to mark the first $1 billion generated through Measure ULA.

Amid chants of “Measure ULA is here to stay,” the group hailed the measure approved by voters in 2022 as a game changer in creating affordable housing and addressing homelessness throughout the city. Measure ULA, commonly referred to as the “mansion tax,” went into effect on Jan. 1, 2023, imposing a 4% tax on property sales over $5.3 million. The measure fell significantly short of initially projected revenues due to a variety of factors, according to a report by the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies. Proponents said Measure ULA has already provided funding for nine projects in L.A. generating 795 new units, including the 187-unit Santa Monica & Vermont Apartments in East Hollywood.

“The voter approved measure has already changed thousands of lives across Los Angeles, providing new housing, renter protections and good paying jobs,” said Joe Donlin, director of the United to House LA coalition. “We celebrate ULA and its many achievements in its short life. Specifically, we mark the very special occasion of ULA raising its first $1 billion for the people. That is $1 billion for affordable social housing, that is $1 billion to protect renters from displacement, that is $1 billion to help keep Angelenos housed.”

“I lived for six years without housing and began to lose hope. It’s exhausting to have to live that way,” said Phoebe Valencia, a tenant in the Santa Monica-Vermont apartments. “It’s the first building that opened with ULA funds, and it’s my home. I’m so excited that ULA continues to focus on building more places that people will call home.”

Measure ULA funds are administered through the Los Angeles Housing Department to developers of affordable housing. Developers apply for grants, and projects are individually evaluated by the city. The ULA Citizen Oversight Committee monitors the fund’s implementation, audits expenditures and advises city officials on priorities and guidelines. The measure will provide grants for thousands of additional units in the latest round of funding approved last year.

Raman and Hernandez praised Measure ULA for its impact on addressing the housing crisis, and warned that developers and property owners are fighting to have it overturned.

“Whenever I’m talking about ULA, I always want to underscore this was the people’s achievement. This was your achievement. You saw a need for critical and life-saving policies to keep people housed, to keep people in their neighborhoods, to prevent displacement, to make sure that people have the exact kind of housing that they needed – you saw that need, and you created a resource for us,” Raman said. “When Measure ULA passed with the majority of city voters, L.A. unlocked for the first time a permanent funding source for social housing, renter relief, eviction defense, critical services … and that money has achieved so much. This is an incredible resource, and it has already been used for so much and it will be used for so much more.”

“What ULA is is justice for the families and people that live in this city, that work in this city, that right now can’t afford to live in this city, and that’s why we have to do whatever we can to protect it,” Hernandez added. “ULA has already delivered more than $2.3 million in rental assistance just to Council District 1, helping families stay housed and stopping the eviction to homelessness pipeline that exists in the city.”

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association opposed Measure ULA and has filed a lawsuit to invalidate the law. 

“Voters placed taxpayer protections in the state constitution, including Proposition 13 in 1978 and Proposition 218 in 1996. Yet the courts have repeatedly interpreted these rights away, as if they did not exist. Measure ULA is one of the taxes that was enacted because of these court-created loopholes,” said Susan Shelley, vice president of communications for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. “The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association challenged the validity of Measure ULA, a real estate transfer tax for a special purpose, which we contend was prohibited by the Los Angeles City Charter because it is a tax that neither the City Council nor the voters were legally allowed to enact. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association believes the lower courts got it wrong in upholding Measure ULA, and we continue to pursue an appeal. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is also working to qualify an initiative constitutional amendment, the Local Taxpayer Protection Act to Save Proposition 13, that would ‘sunset’ excessive real estate transfer taxes and close the court-created loopholes that have erased constitutional taxpayer protections.”

Measure ULA has also caused concern by reducing the number of higher-valued sales in the real estate market, according to UCLA. The reduced number of real estate transactions, which also include commercial an multi-family properties, results in less property taxes raised. Reasons for the shortage include a rush of sales before it took effect, high interest rates and overall reduction in the real estate market, according to the report by the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies.

Measure ULA only applies in the city of Los Angeles and excludes the cities of Beverly Hills and West Hollywood. Property owners in Los Angeles City Council’s 5th District contributed $253 million and residents of the 11th District contributed more than $261 million of the $1 billion generated so far by the measure, according to realtor.com.

Measure ULA supporters who gathered outside City Hall pointed to the long-term benefits it will bring, and vowed to continue fighting to ensure funds are directed toward affordable housing.

“It’s exactly the kind of tool that we need,” Hernandez added.