April 23, 2026
Our coalition coalesces around Ad Hoc Committee kickoff
At the end of March, more than 100 community members rallied outside City Hall before the first meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on United to House Los Angeles. The message was loud and clear: We need Measure ULA.
The Ad Hoc Committee, composed of three city council members (Ysabel Jurado, John Lee, and Imelda Padilla), is currently reviewing Measure ULA and the proposals to change it.
On Friday, April 24, four weeks in, the committee will hear from a panel of Measure ULA’s critics.
Critics of ULA have blamed the measure for the recent slowdown in the real estate market, but we know that the matter is far more complex. A recent report from BAE Urban Economics cited high interest rates, rising cap rates, lower rents, and an array of other market conditions for the dip. In fact, the report found that waivers like those proposed by ULA’s critics would make very few currently infeasible projects pencil out.
Advocates for changes to ULA claim that selective cuts and preemptive compromises could mollify the right-wing anti-tax zealots who just this week succeeded in getting the “Taxpayer Deception Act” on the November ballot. We know that our opposition won’t back down. They’ve said as much publicly and privately.
We also know that we can beat them at the ballot box. (See some initial polling at the end of this newsletter.) How many Californians are going to vote for a Peter Thiel- and MAGA-backed giveaway to developers and billionaires at the expense of valuable affordable housing funding?
If we work together, we can stop the opposition for good. That’s why we called on the Ad Hoc Committee to preserve Measure ULA, oppose the Jarvis initiative, and support ACA13 to protect majority rule and ensure voter-approved services are upheld across California.
Before the first Ad Hoc Committee meeting, coalition members addressed the crowd, made noise, and staged a tug-of-war demonstration in support of our demands. We told the City Council that any cuts to funds for fighting evictions, building affordable housing, and providing services to those in need would be unacceptable.
A great turnout from our coalition sent the message that we will defend Measure ULA against all attacks and fight to protect the benefits it has brought to the working people of Los Angeles.
“We just witnessed a physical representation of power—and what it looks like to reclaim it,” said Cynthia Bourjac, ACT-LA’s Power Building Director. “The wealthy and corporate class have gotten too comfortable with buying our housing system while the majority of us are stuck struggling in an increasingly expensive housing and rental market.”
As Jamie Penn, board member of the Beverly & Vermont Community Land Trust told the committee: “ULA was not designed to maintain the status quo housing systems–it was designed to change it, and it’s working. It creates resources for tenant protections, homeless prevention, and community ownership strategies that have never been funded before at this scale in LA. Los Angeles has an opportunity to lead nationally on equitable housing policy. This is not the time to retreat.”
Antonio Martinez, a renter who was able to get help with a recent eviction through programs funded by ULA, put it this way: “I defend ULA because people like me need stability and dignity. Housing is a right, not a business.”
P.S. We need all hands on deck to defeat Jarvis’s Taxpayer Deception, but let’s remember we are starting from a strong place. The people of California can see this proposition is bad for our state. If you have friends who are worried, show them this initial poll by the Public Policy Institute of California which shows that a large majority of voters think it stinks — including 51% of likely Republican voters.
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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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