Defend and Deliver: A Community-Led Vision for Housing Justice in Los Angeles

Affordable housing and homelessness

Central LA East LA South LA West LA San Fernando Valley City of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a citywide benefit)

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Los Angeles faces a deepening housing crisis, fueled by skyrocketing rents, displacement, and decades of policy failure. Over 46,000 Angelenos are unhoused, and nearly three-fourths of renters are rent-burdened. Low-income, BIPOC, and immigrant communities bear the brunt—facing harassment, eviction, and rising housing costs that threaten their ability to stay in the city they call home. In 2022, voters passed Measure ULA to change course, generating up to $600 million annually through a tax on luxury property sales to fund housing and homelessness solutions. But real estate and anti-tax interests are fighting to repeal or gut the measure, threatening this hard-won victory. Without bold action to defend ULA and ensure its implementation, we risk losing the most transformative housing justice opportunity in a generation. That’s why we’re working to ensure our communities are organized, informed, and mobilized to protect what we’ve won and shape what comes next.

The United to House LA (UHLA) coalition will carry out a coordinated campaign to defend and deliver Measure ULA—one of the most transformative housing justice initiatives in the country. Our work in 2025–26 will focus on four core goals:
1. Protect ULA. Since Measure ULA passed in 2022, it has faced coordinated attacks from real estate and anti-tax interests. We will defend it through legal strategy, coalition mobilization, and public narrative work to resist efforts to repeal or weaken it.
2. Promote ULA. We’ll run strategic media campaigns—including digital, earned, and paid media—to raise awareness about ULA-funded programs like eviction defense, rental assistance, and income support. We’ll ensure that both voters and impacted residents understand how ULA works and why it must be protected.
3. Implement ULA. We’ll continue to shape and push forward the implementation of 11 new housing and homelessness programs created by Measure ULA, including social housing and tenant protections. We’ll support the ULA Citizens Oversight Committee and advocate for transparent, community-led rollout.
4. Build the UHLA coalition for the long term. As the coalition that authored and passed ULA, we are planning for long-term sustainability and shared leadership. This includes internal planning to grow our infrastructure, deepen alignment, and prepare for future campaigns that build on ULA’s foundation.

No one should be sleeping on the streets or paying half their income in rent in a region as large and prosperous as Los Angeles. We must do better. If our work is successful, LA will be a national model for what’s possible when tenants, workers, and everyday Angelenos lead the fight for housing justice. Measure ULA will be fully implemented, generating billions to protect renters from eviction, preserve housing, and invest in community-led solutions like social housing. Tens of thousands of Angelenos will find or remain in housing, and public narratives will shift—from scarcity and blame to dignity and shared responsibility.

This is about more than one measure. It’s about building lasting power to shape the systems that govern housing. With our 240+ member coalition, we are laying the groundwork for future policies and campaigns—scaling a model of community-led governance that can transform LA into a city where no one is unhoused and public land serves the public good.