September 3, 2026
The Ad Hoc Committee proposed changes to ULA.
It’s time to implement them.
As mentioned in our last newsletter, Measure ULA has now weathered state and local attacks, and no measures will be on the November ballot that could permanently weaken ULA, as had been proposed.
For all of us who have worked so hard to defend it, this is a cherished victory. Now it’s time to complete some essential work that came out of this process that will strengthen and protect ULA.
The Los Angeles City Council should advance key program changes proposed by the Ad Hoc Committee on Measure ULA. These include important technical amendments that will clarify and streamline the implementation of ULA’s affordable housing investments.
One of the most substantial is a tax credit program that applies to multifamily housing sold within ten years of construction. Multifamily and mixed-use housing projects will have to further the purposes of ULA in order to earn the credit, meaning they must be built with prevailing wage labor and include at least some affordable housing units. Builders can receive up to a 100% waiver of the ULA tax depending on the benchmarks they meet.
After the proposed attacks on Measure ULA failed to reach the ballot, many ULA critics claimed that nothing at all had come out of the yearlong discussion about Measure ULA. It’s important, as these modifications to ULA move forward, to reject the lie that the only possible change to Measure ULA is slashing it via ballot initiative or state legislation.
With nearly $400 million awarded in the ULA NOFA this past April and an even larger NOFA to be announced later this year, the communities that most need these massive investments will be well served by the technical amendments moving swiftly to final approvals.
The Council has done solid work drafting improvements to Measure ULA to meet changing needs. It’s time to put them into motion.
LA’s housing market shows strength—despite the hype
You can learn a lot by reading the business and real estate press. There are no shortage of articles and opinion pieces that allege that Measure ULA has caused a slowdown, and slashing it would boost production (while incidentally returning profits to developers).
At the same time, investors and developers need to know what’s actually happening in the world. Once you peel past the opinions, plenty of coverage shows that housing production and investment in Los Angeles is returning to normal.
Though some in the luxury real estate world have persistently claimed that ULA is hurting housing construction, we are seeing marked improvement in LA’s housing market in 2026. In fact, some developers are embracing post-ULA Los Angeles as “the easiest place to develop real estate.”
The numbers confirm it. Since late 2025, the luxury housing market has seen a strong bounce back following a couple slow years. Multifamily construction starts were up in the first quarter of 2026, higher than 90% of the quarters prior to ULA’s implementation dating back a decade. Rents in Los Angeles hit a four-year low in 2026, pushing LA out of the ten most expensive cities for tenants. Remember that when they try to tell you Measure ULA is raising the rent. And now RealPage report that the LA County metro shows a year-over-year near-doubling in multifamily permits, with the majority concentrated in Los Angeles city.
CalMatters reporter Ben Christopher recently zoomed out and took a look at multifamily housing across California. He found that almost nowhere in California is building enough market-rate housing. Production in Los Angeles, where Measure ULA is in place, is well above the state average, and also well ahead of Los Angeles County.
The same article notes that we are the furthest behind our goals when it comes to producing affordable housing—the housing that we cannot finance without Measure ULA.
Though there is so much in the complex real estate market that is beyond our control, the fact is that the market is adjusting, and attempts to claim ULA is hurting the housing market keep coming up short.
Get the latest news on ULA and ULA-related actions
on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unitedtohousela/
on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/united-to-house-la
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.
If someone forwarded this email to you, and you want to sign up, click here.