February 23, 2026
Thank you for raising your voice!
Last month, you rallied to keep a last-minute motion attacking ULA from going to the June ballot. That worked, and it was sent to committee. Thank you for showing up for ULA!
Now we have the chance to remind Los Angeles how important ULA is as we prepare for future challenges. Conservative groups like the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association continue to threaten attacks on ULA. Councilmember Raman’s motion included language about placating right-wing opponents but didn’t include any mechanism for stopping them. We know that the best way to stop attacks on ULA is to face them head-on.
If attacks from Jarvis or another group materialize, we are ready to fight back. There’s a very important opportunity we have to do just that in November. Read to the end of this week’s newsletter to learn how.
ULA is here to stay
The Los Angeles real estate market continues to adjust to ULA. As a string of unsuccessful attacks have fallen apart, a series of recent news stories have illustrated what we’ve known all along: ULA is here to stay.
We are seeing heavy investment in multifamily buildings. In the recent piece, “LA multifamily investment grows despite Measure ULA, rising rents,” real estate news site The Real Deal reported substantial increases in multifamily unit investment in 2024 and 2025. According to a recent report, “Almost 30,000 units across LA County traded hands in 2025, up from fewer than 20,000 units sold in 2020.”
In addition to an active multifamily market, wealthy buyers continue to purchase luxury homes despite initial claims that ULA would hinder high-end transactions. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that 2025 saw a 35% increase in sales at the top of the LA market compared to 2024.
Increased sales of pricey high-rises and luxurious mansions means more funding for ULA, and this revenue shows no signs of slowing.
When asked by the Journal what led to the uptick in real estate sales, one LA real estate agent simply said, “Sellers are starting to accept [ULA].”
As the real estate market remains active, rents in LA have fallen to a four-year low with the median rent dipping to $2,167. In a piece on decreasing rents across the city, the LA Times noted, “The last time LA rents were this low was January 2022.”
The data tells a compelling story: housing prices are down, developers continue to build, and the LA real estate market remains active.
All of this means that developers, lobbyists, and politicians are coming around to the fact that ULA isn’t going anywhere. Despite years of hand-wringing and threats, despite rumors of attacks from City Council and Sacramento, the real estate market of Los Angeles has accepted that if they are going to do business in LA, they are going to do business under ULA.
This is because they know we will fight to protect ULA. And when we fight, we win.
ULA in action: How Rose fought back
Rose is a ULA success story.
ULA funds Stay Housed LA (SHLA). SHLA offers information and resources to keep people in their homes. When Rose was facing an illegal eviction and landlord harassment, she reached out to the Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates of Southern California (KIWA), and KIWA was able to connect her to Stay Housed LA to help her fight back.
Like so many Angelenos, Rose worked hard, paid her rent on time, and was rewarded with an eviction. Stay Housed LA helped her secure a legal consultation which led her to receive secure relocation assistance and transitional housing as she looked for her new home.
Rose is just one of many people who has received eviction defense thanks to ULA. With ULA funding, Stay Housed LA has supported nearly ten thousand Los Angeles tenants with legal services including full-scope representation in court for over 2,500 of those renters. The program has reached more than 150,000 tenants with information about their rights.
When SHLA assists tenants with eviction defense, those renters win favorable outcomes 90% of the time.
This work is making a difference. The City’s Eviction Dashboard shows a steady decline in eviction notices since ULA was passed and continued victories in eviction defense.
Los Angeles has demonstrated that expanding the tenant right to counsel means fewer evictions. That right is only meaningful if there are community organizations who can let renters know their rights and lawyers who can provide the counsel—and thanks to ULA, by 2030, it will be fully implemented in Los Angeles. We are confident this means eviction numbers will continue to drop.
Rose herself said it best: “This is the time to strengthen and raise more funds for ULA. Many tenants who are struggling could receive navigation support, rent relief, and income support. So tenants like me can be housed. Let’s fight together to protect ULA.”
Pass ACA 13 and help fix a broken system
California’s ballot initiative process is broken.
Right now, a simple majority (50%) of statewide voters can impose a supermajority requirement (up to 75%) to change a local law. This prevents voters from deciding how to invest resources in their own communities and weakens the democratic process.
In November, we have the chance to change this unfair policy. Under ACA 13, the Protect and Retain the Majority Vote Act, if conservatives want to require ⅔ of votes to impose new taxes, that ballot measure has to earn ⅔ of the vote itself.
If the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association succeeds in putting their proposed initiative on the ballot and passing it, it would overturn Measure ULA and many other local revenue measures up and down California, slashing revenues for parks and firefighters, to say nothing of LA’s largest-ever affordable housing and homelessness prevention fund.
But passing ACA13 by a larger margin would not only prevent the Jarvis initiative from taking effect—it would also mean that, from now on, proposals to require local taxes to have supermajority support would need to win by the same thresholds they propose.
Fairness is on the ballot. YES on ACA 13.
Get the latest news on ULA and ULA-related actions on our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unitedtohousela/
ULA Resources
- LA Housing Department’s ULA Dashboards
- ULA Citizens Oversight Committee (COC)
- United to House LA Coalition
This newsletter is produced by the United to House LA (UHLA) Coalition that includes over 240 local nonprofit social service providers, community and tenant organizations, labor unions, affordable housing developers, faith-based organizations, and other groups that came together to craft Measure ULA and who have stayed together to make sure that its implementation is carried out effectively and efficiently by the City government.
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