ULA Updates

NEWSLETTER: Welcome to the ULA newsletter!

July 16, 2025

ULA in action

Welcome to our new newsletter about Measure ULA from the United to House LA Coalition!

We want to make sure you know about the great work that Measure ULA is doing to build affordable housing, protect tenants, create good jobs, and help us ensure that every Angeleno has a safe, dignified home.

On to the news!

Two years in, thousands of lives transformed

Measure ULA passed in November 2022, with 58% support. The transfer tax that funds it went into effect on April 1, 2023.

In the past two years that it’s been in effect, ULA has:

kept 10,000 Angelenos in their homes through rental assistance
supported the development of 795 affordable homes
accelerated the creation of 10,000 union construction jobs
reached and educated over 140,000 Angelenos on their rights as tenants, helping prevent “self evictions”

Protecting Tenants

ULA provides 100% of the enforcement dollars for LA’s Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance to stop landlords from forcing out tenants to raise rents.

On June 24, the LA City Council passed a new Right to Counsel law that will ensure that every low-income tenant facing eviction is provided with an attorney to represent them in court. Phased in over several years, Measure ULA dollars will pay for the eviction defense and tenant outreach and education services necessary for implementing the Right to Counsel.

Raising New Housing Dollars

ULA has raised more than $725 million and counting in new revenues — that’s more than $300 million per year, and the monthly revenues have risen steadily nearly every quarter.

It’s L.A. city’s first-ever permanent major funding stream for affordable housing. And it raises more than twice as much money for affordable housing as Los Angeles receives from the federal government!

And who pays? Wealthy mansion owners and corporations. ULA’s real estate transfer tax affects just 4% of property sales. So millionaires and billionaires contribute to major housing solutions while most Angelenos pay nothing. And everyone benefits from reduced homelessness and from tenants and workers who have more money in their pockets to support our local economy.

Robust Civilian Oversight

ULA has a Citizens Oversight Commission to make sure that those dollars go where they’re supposed to, according to the law. That means transparency, not politicians’ pet projects. And it means that every dollar goes to help someone move into a home, or to stay in it.

I got down on my knees and gave thanks

Carlos Casillas, a 50-year-old renter in Los Angeles, lives in a 150-square-foot studio apartment in Highland Park, a longtime Latino neighborhood that has been gentrifying. The rent is $1,450 a month.

“I had no choice,” he said. “I needed a place to live. So I told myself I gotta work three jobs.”

Casillas drives for Uber and Postmates, does construction work, and is a first responder at a mental health center, dispatched by the L.A. Police Department to de-escalate potentially violent situations, mostly involving unhoused persons. A divorced father of three who was born and raised in Los Angeles, Casillas was worried that he might become unhoused himself.

“I was stressed out, living paycheck to paycheck,” he said. “I had insomnia. It was hard for me to concentrate at work, to give 100 percent to the unhoused clients I was supporting, knowing that I could be in their shoes at any given moment if anything goes wrong. My main concern at the time was my children — the stress and the fear they would have had knowing that their father was homeless.”

Fortunately, he saw a flyer for a local community organizing group, LA Más. Casillas attended a few meetings and met with the staff, who told him about a new rental assistance program funded by ULA for people threatened with eviction, and they helped him apply.

Without the assistance, Casillas would have been living in his car.

“When I finally got the email saying, congratulations, we are going to assist you with the funds for six months of back rent, I was in disbelief, in awe,” Casillas said. “I actually got down on my knees and prayed and gave thanks. It was a big weight off my shoulders, and I was able to breathe. And I was able to sleep again.”

Carlos Casillas is one of about 10,000 renters who have received rent relief under the ULA program.

ULA Resources

This newsletter is produced by the United to House LA (UHLA) Coalition, which 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 L.A. City government.

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