FAQ
General
Who’s behind ULA?
The United to House LA coalition advanced Measure ULA and advocates to implement it for the benefit of Angelenos facing the housing and homelessness crisis. We are homeless service providers, affordable housing nonprofits, labor unions, community land trusts and renters’ rights groups. From crafting the measure and pushing for its passage to ensuring its implementation and success, United to House LA is dedicated to addressing LA’s housing crisis with proven solutions.
Never before in Los Angeles has there been a solution to homelessness that was created by experts who know what works and backed by a dedicated, long-term funding source.
That is why ULA is having a real and immediate impact on Los Angeles.
How does ULA work?
ULA funds solutions that address immediate and long-term housing needs in our communities.
- ULA funding provides housing for people who have lived on the streets, sends emergency assistance to low-income seniors in danger of becoming homeless, provides legal aid to renters, protects tenants from harassment, builds permanently affordable housing, and so much more.
- Funding comes from a one-time tax when real estate sells for more than $5.3 million in LA City, adjusted annually.
- ULA Program Guidelines ensure every dollar spent through ULA follows the ballot measure Angelenos voted for.
- An independent Citizen’s Oversight Committee evaluates how all funds are used to ensure ULA continues to meet the expectations of LA voters.
Does your coalition support building market rate housing?
Absolutely! In 2016, many UHLA organizations passed Measure JJJ to establish the Transit-Oriented Communities program—a nationally recognized incentive for market-rate development near transit that has resulted in thousands of affordable housing units and many more thousands of market rate units. In 2017, we were the main coalition who defeated Measure S, which would have virtually shut down development of market and affordable housing. The Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) shows that Los Angeles has done a better job of building market rate housing than affordable housing, and Measure ULA will help build the affordable housing we need.
Why is ULA called a “mansion tax” if it also includes multifamily and commercial construction?
The majority of sales that support Measure ULA are single family homes, and multifamily, commercial and industrial property sales have been included since the beginning. Large commercial, industrial and luxury residential properties selling for millions of dollars shouldn’t be exempted from addressing our housing crisis. But call it a “real estate transfer tax” if you prefer — that’s what we call it.
Why do ULA buildings require resale to a nonprofit? What’s wrong with a for-profit affordable housing operator, as long as the units are affordable?
Non-profit organizations, community land trusts and public agencies put the community, the tenants and the public first. By investing in non-profit and public entities, Los Angeles has a greater chance of holding onto these assets as a public good.
How did United to House LA come up with the figure of 10,000 jobs accelerated by Measure ULA?
Using certified payroll data, the city counted every individual job—not full-time equivalents, but actual laborers, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, etc—created to build 14 affordable apartment buildings funded by Prop HHH with a total cost of $438 million. Dividing that by the job total of 15,014 equals 34 jobs per million dollars of total development cost (TDC).
Using that rate, the 795 units above with a TDC of $547 million could be expected to create 18,598 individual jobs. There’s no way to be 100% certain that the Accelerator Plus projects will produce exactly as many construction jobs as those 14 HHH projects. A conservative estimate of 22 jobs per $1M TDC yielded 12,034 jobs. That figure was then rounded down even further, and that’s why United to House LA has consistently said that our current spending plan is accelerating 10,000 jobs.
ULA estimated it would raise a billion dollars a year. Why did it take two and a half years to raise the first billion dollars?
Immediately after the passage of Measure ULA, real estate interests began a campaign to overturn it, and property owners held off sales and development to see if they could avoid paying into it. This was on top of national conditions that suppressed economic activity. Since then, ULA’s revenue has gained in quarter after quarter, and even with a sluggish start means more revenue for affordable housing than LA has ever had before.
What is Measure ULA’s effect on the economy?
It’s too soon to tell Measure ULA’s effects, it’s too hard to separate Measure ULA’s effects from the rest of the economy, and LA’s real estate market is actually a lot stronger than real estate interests admit.
Flawed academic studies misrepresented Measure ULA and LA’s economy in order to support weakening Measure ULA. Here’s what they missed:
Too soon to tell. Developers rushed to sell before ULA passed, and more developers have held off selling while waiting for LA’s delayed zoning reform.
The economy is complicated. National economic conditions like high interest rates, tariffs and construction costs all play a bigger part than the reports consider. They tried to separate out those factors but experts say their methodology was weak and their sample size small.
LA’s real estate market is doing better than they say. Measure ULA’s revenues go up almost every single quarter, new development entitlements have surged, permits have surged year-over-year, and the CHIP zoning reform delivered a rush of project applications.
Why has Measure ULA only spent 1% of its affordable housing budget?
That’s misleading — the commitment of ULA funds is making hundreds of units of affordable housing possible, and today people are calling those units home. That money will get spent when those projects are complete, but they wouldn’t be rising without that initial commitment of $56.1 million.
And that’s just the start! Soon, LAHD will release the results of the $378 million affordable housing round called Homes for LA — the biggest-ever funding availability by a factor of five in LA history, with similar NOFAs to come every year.
How much housing has ULA actually built?
ULA’s “Accelerator Plus” round funded 795 affordable homes in ten different buildings across LA.
As of November 2025, 187 are open at Santa Monica & Vermont, 177 are about to open at the three Enlightenment Plaza apartment buildings, and ground has broken at Peak Plaza (104 units) and Grace Villas (48 units). On the way are Alveare Family (105 units), The Main (64 units) and Chavez Gardens (110 units).
Critics sometimes allege that ULA “has only spent $1.5 million” (or some other ridiculously low amount). This is disingenuous — affordable housing projects often use money from different sources, and ULA funding may be the last to be drawn down. But whether or not the actual check has been written and cashed, having it committed means the difference between homes being built and projects dying on the vine. Other delays were the fault of opponents themselves, as lawsuits created hesitation to spend or build.
How much money has Measure ULA actually raised?
Through November 2025, Measure ULA raised $1.03 billion—a level of funding for affordable housing and homelessness prevention that Los Angeles has never had before.