In 2026, KLAH is fighting to protect Measure ULA against local and statewide threats.
Measure ULA is a transfer tax of 4-5.5% on the sale of properties sold for over $5 million. ULA only affects around 4% of real estate transactions, both personal and commercial, and is paid by the buyers/sellers of these expensive properties. The funds raised by this tax go towards the construction and preservation of permanently affordable housing, and homelessness prevention programs and services.
In 2022, fed up with LA’s affordability crisis and ready for real transformative change, LA voters passed Measure ULA with 58% of the vote. ULA was and remains a historic tool to redistribute wealth to LA’s working class and address our city’s desperate need for permanent affordable housing. Since it’s passing, ULA has raised over $1 billion to tackle LA’s housing crisis.
What is Measure ULA?
threats to ula
Since its passing in 2022, ULA has faced threats from the real estate lobby and billionaire class. From lawsuits, to ballot measures to repeal ULA, to state and local attempts to gut ULA funds through legislation, many have tried unsuccessfully to dismantle this historic tax. In 2026 alone, the housing justice movement has defeated a potential statewide ballot measure that would have repealed ULA, a statewide budget trailer bill that would have slashed ULA revenues, and potential citywide ballot measures to instate broad exemptions to the tax and divert funds to other purposes.
The defense of ULA continues to this day. Currently, we are fighting to ensure that ULA is not gutted through state legislation. We are preparing to defend ULA against possible exemptions and diversion of funds at the city level, to come in a pending LAHD report-back. Finally, we are opposing Prop 43, a measure on the California ballot in November which would severely limit Californians’ ability to pass taxes similar to ULA in the future.
organizing/our campaign
As KLAH, we are working to defend ULA alongside a broad coalition, including the United to House LA Coalition, the LA Right to Counsel Coalition, labor union partners, and many others.
Low-income tenants are at the center of this fight. Tenants who have directly benefitted from ULA funds have shared the critical importance of ULA-funded new affordable buildings, homelessness prevention services, rental assistance programs, and more.
We have advocated tirelessly to the LA City Council, to the LA Delegation of state lawmakers, and to the ULA Citizens’ Oversight Committee. Our demands are clear: no significant changes to ULA without long-term study of the Measure’s impact, pass the COC’s recommended technical amendments, and preserve the intention of ULA for permanent affordable housing and homelessness prevention!
Read about the ULA campaign in the press
LA Times:
"L.A. council puts off yet another attempt to rewrite the city's 'mansion tax'"Yvonne Wheeler, Executive Vice President for the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, explained that “ULA has been under relentless attacks from the billionaire class -- the same interests that have filed lawsuit after lawsuit [against ULA] to avoid paying their fair share“.
Despite a study from UCLA-RAND, that claimed measure ULA was slowing down production of new apartments, “more recent data that [has shown that] housing construction is starting to rebound.“
Telemundo:
"Concejo de Los Ángeles impulsa una propuesta para modificar la Medida ULA"Debido a que la Medida ULA ya ha sido aprobado por los votantes en 2022, Concejala Ysabel Jurado comenta, “en mi conclusión la evidencia no respaldaba volver a poner la Medida ULA en la boleta en este momento. […] No ahora, y no después de solo unos pocos años antes de evaluar plenamente los efectos a largo plazo, y ciertamente no mientras los angelinos dependen de esos recursos para mantenerse con vivienda”.
LA Times:
"Fed up with failed leadership, L.A. voters backed mansion tax to help the homeless. Will it work?"“Measure ULA on Tuesday’s ballot, leading by a considerable margin as votes are tallied, would pump a massive amount of money into homelessness prevention and housing. Several thousand new housing units could be created each year, and rental assistance could prevent thousands more from becoming homeless…
The group called United to House L.A. was led by a sprawling multiracial coalition of labor officials, housing advocates, affordable housing builders, homeless service providers and working people whose jobs are essential but whose housing costs are crippling.”