LA City Council OKs spending $150M, raised via Measure ULA, to help tenants

Nearly 10 months after Angelenos voted for a so-called “mansion tax” to fund affordable housing and homelessness prevention programs, the Los Angeles City Council voted 10-0 on Tuesday, Aug. 29, to approve a plan for spending the first $150 million in Measure ULA funds.

The money will help pay for programs that provide short-term emergency rental assistance, eviction defense, tenant outreach and education, cash assistance for low-income seniors and individuals with disabilities, and tenant harassment protections. It will also help support new affordable housing projects.

During recent Los Angeles City Council meetings and some council committee meetings, renters in the city have implored council members to immediately release the full $150 million in ULA funds that was approved in this year’s budget, citing a pressing need to stave off further homelessness.

Tenant rights advocates have reported an increase in eviction filings since Feb. 1, when the city ended the eviction moratorium that the city adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Additionally, tenants who owed back rent incurred during the first 18 months of the pandemic had until Aug. 1 to pay their debt. Others who owe COVID-related unpaid rent incurred between October 2021 and January of this year have until Feb. 1 to pay what they owe.

But many tenants say they’re still struggling and fear another wave of eviction notices.

Maria Briones, a member of Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, an organization that belongs to the United to House LA coalition, said she represents the typical renter who would benefit from ULA-funded programs. She spoke during a rally and press conference outside of City Hall on Tuesday, ahead of the council vote.

“I am standing here today as (an) at-risk tenant – disabled, senior citizen. … I am the embodiment of the average Angeleno tenant,” said Briones. She described living in her rental unit with no electricity for the past three weeks, without access to a working fan or fridge, and said she’s been harassed by her landlord.

“I keep fighting,” Briones said, “for not just myself, but for the hundreds of thousands of people in the same position.”

Joe Donlin, director of United to House LA, the coalition that led the campaign to pass Measure ULA, said the city has experienced the worst affordable housing and homelessness crises in the nation. He called Tuesday’s vote by the council “a big day for L.A.”

“This is the first $150 million from this important measure to go out into our communities to keep our neighborhoods intact,” Donlin said.

Measure ULA is a tax on the sale of real estate property of more than $5 million, which took effect April 1.

Councilmember Nithya Raman, who led Tuesday’s rally and press conference, said afterward that while the COVID-related back rent repayment deadline had added to the urgency of addressing Angelenos’ housing needs, eviction filings occurred even before Aug. 1.

“The Aug. 1 deadline was a deepening of that (urgency) … but as you saw from the data around eviction filings, those have been filed, and those are going to continue to be filed. And I think it’s important to make sure that we are treating this not as a moment of crisis, but as an ongoing emergency,” she said.

The councilmember said the release of ULA dollars will allow the city to invest in the infrastructure and staffing needed to carry out the programs the tax measure is intended to fund.

During the council meeting, Ann Sewill, the head of the city’s housing department, said a portal for tenants seeking emergency rent assistance is expected to launch on Sept. 19. A similar portal for landlords who are owed rent will launch in mid-October, she said.

This month, a representative for the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, which is suing the city over Measure ULA, told the City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee that the association would support rental assistance programs funded by sources such as the federal government.

He also suggested that instead of allocating money for a tenant eviction defense program, more funding should be put into the rental assistance program to help tenants pay their rents.

“By doing so, evictions can be completely avoided and attorneys will not be needed in a vast majority of cases,” said Max Sherman, the representative for the association.

Measure ULA is expected to generate hundreds of millions of dollars a year for the city, but because of an ongoing lawsuit challenging the tax, city officials only included $150 million in ULA funds in this year’s budget. Officials believe the city has the means to provide this amount in the budget through money it’s owed from the federal government if a court invalidates the tax measure.

Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, who chairs the council’s budget committee, expressed support for authorizing the spending of all $150 million upfront, instead of only when the money is collected. In the first four months since the tax was enacted, the city has raised more than $55 million, city officials said.

“I looked at that. That is a cash flow problem that should not impact the expenditure that we have promised we would make in the budget,” Blumenfield said in an interview. “We promised $150 million, and we’re going to deliver $150 million. We’re not going to let cash flow issues slow that down.”