The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday approved a plan to spend nearly $425 million collected from Measure ULA, directing the money to a series of affordable housing and homelessness programs.
The spending plan for the 2025 fiscal year that started Tuesday is the largest yet under Measure ULA, also known as the mansion tax.
The voter-approved measure, which taxes property sales above about $5 million, has drawn criticism from the real estate industry for years and recently been the subject of several reports that found it has limited property sales and thus reduced property tax revenue and the construction of new housing.
Backers, however, tout the measure as providing crucial dollars to affordable housing and homelessness prevention programs at a time when the state and county have cut funding.
In all, the 2025 ULA spending plan is greater than all other years combined.
“Don’t believe the hate from big-money real estate or their lies appearing all over the media,” Joe Donlin, director of United to House LA, said in a statement. “Measure ULA is doing the steady work to create stable homes and good jobs for Angelenos.”
Under the plan approved Tuesday, more than $100 million is set to flow to homelessness prevention programs, including income support for at-risk tenants and eviction defense.
The majority of the 2025 funds, more than $288 million, is to be spent on the production and preservation of affordable housing.
Since voters passed the measure in late 2022, the tax has collected more than $702 million, according to the city’s Housing Department.
