By SAJE Staff
This morning, SAJE helped deliver 98,171 signatures to the Los Angeles City Clerk’s office in
support of a measure aimed at fixing the city’s affordable housing and homelessness. Led by
the United to House LA coalition, this effort is a huge step towards getting the measure on the
November ballot.
As proposed, the measure would create the Los Angeles Program to Prevent Homelessness and
Fund Affordable Housing to enact a robust set of housing initiatives funded through a one-time
tax on property sales of over five million dollars. Because this assessment is aimed only at very
high-value properties, it would apply to only the wealthiest Angelenos while benefitting
everyone. In fact, based on property sales between March 2019 and 2020, 97% of real estate
transactions would not have been subjected to the tax.
Similar to progressive documentary transfer taxes in Culver City and many Bay Area cities, the
measure would impose a new two-tier fee as follows:
The full value of the transfer of property from $5,000,001 to $10,000,000 will be taxed a
single time at 4%.
The full value of the transfer of property of more than $10,000,001 will be taxed a single
time at 5.5%
If passed, this measure will generate more than $8 billion dollars over the first ten years. This
long-term funding stream will enable Los Angeles to build more affordable housing, which will
in turn create almost 44,000 good-paying construction jobs and 16,000 ongoing jobs over the
next decade. It will also provide rental assistance, emergency income support, and access to
permanent housing to people experiencing homelessness and those at risk of losing their
homes.
For more information on the measure and how you can get involved in ensuring it passes in
November, visit the United to House LA website.