L.A.'s 'mansion tax' is supposed to help with homelessness prevention, but a local nonprofit working to provide affordable housing says the 2022 measure has cost them a lot of money.
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Officially known as measure ULA, it's a 4% tax on property sold for above $5 million and 5.5% on anything over $10 million. The city then uses the money to fund efforts to support lower-income tenants and prevent them from becoming homeless.
Bob Beitcher, with The Motion Picture & Television Fund, said they were hit with a $1.65 million bill for selling an 18-acre parcel of land that the nonprofit has owned for decades but wasn't using.
Beitcher told KNX News' Nataly Tavidian that the path for exemption is clear; only selling the parcel to someone who plans on building affordable housing will avoid the tax.
In MPTF's case, Beitcher said two things stand in their way; "no one is going to be buying 18 acres to build affordable housing. And secondly, it's zoned for senior living, not for affordable housing."
MPTF houses 75 residents on its campus, providing not only a roof but three meals a day and access to services and amenities, all of which amount to approximately $3 million in yearly expenses.
Beitcher argues that the $1.65 million would have been more useful if it had been reinvested into the nonprofit, which, he points out, does what the mansion tax hopes to do—keep low-income people housed.
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