LA City Council passes mansion tax spending plan

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday passed a spending plan supporters say will quickly move funds raised from the city's so-called mansion tax to programs designed to reduce the housing crisis in the city.

Around $55 million has already been raised by Measure ULA, which went into effect April 1.

L.A. voters passed the measure last November with the promise that funds it raised would be used to alleviate the city's homelessness problem and shortage of affordable housing.

The plan approved by the council directs $150 million into six programs, including short-term emergency rental assistance, eviction defense, tenant outreach and education, direct cash assistance for low-income seniors and people living with disabilities, protections from tenant harassment and affordable housing production.

The funding will be used "to stabilize tenants and keep them housed, to educate tenants about their rights, protect them from harassment, and to build as many more housing units as possible," said Ann Sewill, General Manager of the Los Angeles Housing Department.

Mansion Tax backers staged a rally outside City Hall right before councilmembers voted 10-0 to approve the spending plan.

"We're expecting this money ultimately to be a billion dollars a year," said Councilmember Bob Blumenfield.

But generating billions for housing has been done before, with little effect on the local homelessness crisis. L.A. County's Measure H went into effect in 2017 and is expected to raise $3.5 billion over its 10-year life.

The spending from city of L.A.'s bond-funded Proposition HHH has already reached more than $1 billion.

Councilmember Nithya Raman says the city has learned from the mistakes made by those attempts and will get mansion tax funds to the right causes in a faster way.

"It was being spent. It wasn't spent fast enough," she told Eyewitness News. "We can utilize the lessons we learned from HHH to make sure we don't make those same mistakes this time around."

But the future of the Mansion Tax is still up in the air. It's being challenged in the courts and by a statewide ballot measure next year.