Skip to content Skip to footer
Truthout Logo Truthout
  • Latest
  • About
  • Donate

Trending:

  • Palestine
  • Labor
  • Immigration
  • Climate Crisis
  • Public Health
Truthout Logo Truthout
  • Latest
  • About
  • Donate
Menu
  • Latest
  • About Us
  • Subscribe
  • Donate
Filter Search

Social Media

  • Facebook Facebook Circle Icon
  • Bluesky Bluesky Circle Icon
  • Flipboard Flipboard Circle Icon
  • Instagram Instagram Circle Icon
  • Twitter Twitter Circle Icon
  • RSS RSS Circle Icon

Sections

  • Culture & Media
  • Economy & Labor
  • Education & Youth
  • Environment & Health
  • Human Rights
  • Immigration
  • LGBTQ Rights
  • Politics & Elections
  • Prisons & Policing
  • Racial Justice
  • Reproductive Rights
  • War & Peace
  • Series & Podcasts

Trending

  • Palestine
  • Labor
  • Immigration
  • Climate Crisis
  • Public Health

Latest

Palestine
Decades of Cinematic Organizing Change the Narrative on Palestine in the US
Labor
Philadelphia Union Ends Largest Municipal Workers’ Strike in Decades
Elon Musk
X CEO Linda Yaccarino Steps Down After Platform’s AI Chatbot Spews Nazi Hate
Donald Trump
Trump’s FTC Let Lobbyists Kill Popular Click-To-Cancel Rule, Advocates Say

More

  • About
  • Donate
  • Manage Your Donation
  • Support Our Work
  • Subscribe
  • Submission Guidelines
  • Financial Information
  • Privacy Policy
  • Memorial Essay Prize
  • Truthout Center for Grassroots Journalism
  • Job Openings
  • Contact Us
© 2025 Truthout
News
|
Economy & Labor

New Proposal Would Tax the Rich to House Low-Income People in Los Angeles

A proposal on the ballot in Los Angeles would tax turnovers of luxury properties to fund affordable housing.

By
Sam Pizzigati ,
Inequality.org
Published
July 2, 2022
Protestors in Los Angles hold signs saying "Protect our unhoused neighbors"
Protesters demonstrate on Sunset Boulevard against the removal of a homeless encampment at Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.
Mario Tama / Getty Images

Did you know that Truthout is a nonprofit and independently funded by readers like you? If you value what we do, please support our work with a donation.

Almost 80 years ago, in 1943, Los Angeles introduced the rest of the United States to the phenomenon of smog. At one point that year, the haze had visibility down a frightening three city blocks.

In L.A. these days, “fine inhalable particulate matter” doesn’t pose much of a problem in the city’s plushest environs. But the neighborhoods L.A.’s low-income families call home still suffer from rates of air pollution that dwarf the levels in more comfortable quarters.

Get our free emails

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

What’s going to fix this distinctly unequal state of atmospheric affairs? How about a step toward a more equal state of economic affairs — and L.A. voters might just be about to take that step. On the citywide ballot this November: a landmark new tax on the rich that will kick in every time a local mansion changes hands.

All the proceeds from this new tax on the turnover of properties worth over $5 million will go to creating safe and secure housing opportunities for L.A. families of limited financial means.

No one knows exactly how much the proposed new city ordinance will raise, if passed, but the take from the new tax figures to be substantial. The grassroots coalition behind the initiative, Unite to House LA, is estimating that had its proposed tax measure been in effect over one recent 12-month period, the city would have cleared some $800 million in new revenue.

All that revenue, with the “House LA” initiative in place, would come from adding a new 4 percent city tax on the sale or transfer of properties valued between $5 million and $10 million and a new 5.5 percent levy on the transfer of properties that go for over $10 million. The current city tax on these luxury transfers: just 0.45 percent.

Over the last two years, data from the real estate site Redfin show, more than 1,000 single-family homes in greater Los Angeles sold for over $5 million, some for extravagantly over that marker.

Some trace the L.A. area’s super-boom in luxury housing back to 2017 when a new home in Beverly Hills went on the market for a then-spectacular $100 million. That manse came with a champaign vault prefilled with 170 bottles and a full-time house manager with a salary prepaid for two years. Two years later, the developer Nile Niami asked an astonishing $500 million for a 100,000-square-foot Bel-Air hilltop estate complete with its own nightclub and IMAX theater.

Overall, reports the real estate brokerage Compass Inc., Los Angeles last year saw more luxury properties selling for over $10 million than any other locale in the United States. Topping the 2021 wretched-excess list: the $133 million the crypto king Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, paid for a “minimalist” mansion built in 2009.

Levying the United to House LA initiative tax on properties like these, advocates point out, would enable Los Angeles to keep 475,000 renters annually from going homeless and create new housing units for 69,000 people over the next decade.

And these gains would come from a tax that only impacts about 3 percent of real estate transactions within the Los Angeles city limits. This past May, the typical Los Angeles home sold went for $910,000. Based on that figure, the selling price on the city’s typical home would essentially have to quintuple before triggering the United to House LA mansion tax.

Without that trigger in place, affordable housing advocates believe, Los Angeles faces a “humanitarian crisis.” The city’s Economic Roundtable, for its part, is projecting an 86-percent in homelessness over the next four years.

“We haven’t seen,” notes one local activist behind United to House LA, the Alliance for Community Transit’s Laura Raymond, “our local government take the immediate and bold action that is needed.”

That local government will be coming under the direction of a new mayor after Election Day this November, and the two candidates vying for the city’s top spot somewhat symbolize the political dynamics that have left Los Angeles so deeply divided.

As of earlier this month, mayoral candidate Rick Caruso, a billionaire real estate developer, had spent almost $34 million to make the November runoff, over 11 times the outlays of his mayoral rival, U.S. representative Karen Bass, a former South L.A. community organizer.

Caruso’s claim to fame: He developed Los Angeles’ “most iconic luxury shopping centers.” On the campaign trail, Caruso has been pledging to “clean up” homelessness — and skipping serious public forums about the city’s housing crisis.

Those forums are showcasing the broad coalition behind the United to House LA initiative, an effort that’s enlisted groups that range from the Los Angeles Federation of Labor and individual unions to housing organizations and the ACLU of Southern California. In all, some 150 local groups have so far joined in on the campaign.

The opposition to the House LA initiative is building around funding from the city’s megadevelopers and various other property interests. These groups, says Alison Vu of United to House LA, “don’t want millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share.”

Meanwhile, nationwide, the distribution of housing wealth remains anything but fair. Between 2010 and 2020, the National Association of Realtors reports, housing wealth overall increased $8.2 trillion to a $24.1 trillion. A whopping 71 percent of that jump went to high-income households that make over triple their area’s most typical take-home. Low-income households realized just 4 percent.

Media that fights fascism

Truthout is funded almost entirely by readers — that’s why we can speak truth to power and cut against the mainstream narrative. But independent journalists at Truthout face mounting political repression under Trump.

We rely on your support to survive McCarthyist censorship. Please make a tax-deductible one-time or monthly donation.

Share
  • Share via Facebook Facebook Circle Icon
  • Share via Bluesky Bluesky Circle Icon
  • Share via Flipboard Flipboard Circle Icon
  • Share via Mail Mail Circle Icon
    • Share via Threads
    • Share via Reddit Reddit Cirlce Icon
    • Share via Pocket Pocket Circle Icon
    • Share via Linkedin LinkedIn Circle Icon
    • Share via Twitter Twitter Circle Icon
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
Truthout Logo
Sam Pizzigati

Veteran labor journalist and Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) associate fellow Sam Pizzigati co-edits Inequality.org, the Institute’s weekly newsletter on our great divides. He also contributes a regular column to OtherWords, the IPS national nonprofit editorial service. Sam, now retired from the labor movement, spent two decades directing the publishing program at the U.S.’s largest union, the 2.8-million-member National Education Association, and before that edited the national publications of three other U.S. trade unions. Sam’s own writing has revolved around economic inequality since the early 1990s. His op-eds on income and wealth concentration have appeared in periodicals all around the world, from The New York Times to Le Monde Diplomatique.

Truthout
Share
  • Share via Facebook Facebook Circle Icon
  • Share via Bluesky Bluesky Circle Icon
  • Share via Flipboard Flipboard Circle Icon
  • Share via Mail Mail Circle Icon
    • Share via Threads
    • Share via Reddit Reddit Cirlce Icon
    • Share via Pocket Pocket Circle Icon
    • Share via Linkedin LinkedIn Circle Icon
    • Share via Twitter Twitter Circle Icon

…Reading List

Education & Youth
Connecticut Pilots a Better Way for Unhoused Kids and Caregivers to Access Homes
Human Rights
Sand Mining Is a Booming Industry — This Mexican Community Is Paying the Price
War & Peace
Japanese BDS Activists Are Ramping Up Their Campaign Against a Robotics Company
War & Peace
Amid Gaza’s Devastated Infrastructure, Donkey Carts Function as Ambulances
Environment & Health
At Least 1,277 Measles Cases Identified in 2025 — the Highest Number Since 1992
Environment & Health
As Fires Consumed California, Small Towns Organized Their Own Defense
Related Stories
Rep. Ilhan Omar attends a news conference on Capitol Hill on November 30, 2021, in Washington, D.C.
News
|
Economy & Labor

Ilhan Omar Introduces Bill to Guarantee Housing as a Human Right

The bill would repeal the Faircloth Amendment, which places a hard limit on the amount of public housing in the country.
By
Sharon Zhang ,
Truthout
March 25, 2022
Truthout
A sign is displayed during a protest against housing evictions during the pandemic in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
News
|
Economy & Labor

YIMBY Movement Is Not the Answer to Housing Crisis, Grassroots Activists Say

The answer to the U.S. housing crisis is simple and widely adopted elsewhere: more public housing.
By
Laura Jedeed &
M.K. Hawthorne ,
Truthout
September 19, 2021
Truthout
A woman holds a sign reading "RENT RELIEF NOW" during an outdoor protest
News
|
Economy & Labor

Corporate Property-Buying Spree May Make Housing Even Less Affordable Amid COVID

Corporate investors have been buying up homes from landlords unable to maintain their properties without rental income.
By
Laura Jedeed ,
Truthout
August 17, 2021
Truthout
Latest Stories
Interview
|
Economy & Labor

Philadelphia Union Ends Largest Municipal Workers’ Strike in Decades

“I really think that the union won the public relations battle over the past week,” says labor historian Francis Ryan.
By
Amy Goodman ,
DemocracyNow!
July 9, 2025
Truthout
A logo is displayed outside of the Federal Trade Commission building in Washington, DC.
News
|
Economy & Labor

Trump’s FTC Let Lobbyists Kill Popular Click-To-Cancel Rule, Advocates Say

A federal appeals court blocked the rule, which would have required companies to make it easier to end subscriptions.
By
Jake Johnson ,
CommonDreams
July 9, 2025
Truthout
Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, speaks during an immigrant rights protest outside of the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, D.C., on June 9, 2025.
News
|
Economy & Labor

US’s Largest Labor Union Votes to Cut All Ties to the Anti-Defamation League

The ADL leveraged spurious antisemitism claims to demand that schools bring it in to set policy and provide programming.
By
Emmaia Gelman ,
Mondoweiss
July 8, 2025
Truthout
A cross in a cemetery stands near a petrochemical manufacturing plant on August 21, 2019, in Hahnville, Louisiana.
Interview
|
Environment & Health

New Report Documents Racist Rot at the Core of the Petrochemical Industry

Economist Michael Ash shares new data on racial disparities in the industry — a major purveyor of environmental racism.
By
C.J. Polychroniou ,
Truthout
July 8, 2025
Truthout
A view of the American Federation of Labor-sponsored rally in Madision Square Garden in New York City on June 4, 1947, which protested against passage of the Taft-Hartley labor bill.
News Analysis
|
Economy & Labor

Taft-Hartley Act Still Undercutting Labor 78 Years Later

Taft-Hartley marked the beginning of a long-term strategy to isolate, weaken, and demobilize organized labor in the US.
By
Hayley Brown ,
CenterforEconomicandPolicyResearch
June 29, 2025
Truthout
Power lines in white are seen over a graphic featuring a dark stone surface and the logo for BlackRock
News Analysis
|
Economy & Labor

Why Is BlackRock Gunning to Take Over a Minnesota Electric Utility?

Opponents say the deal would leave ratepayers and regulators at the mercy of far-off financial profiteers.
By
Derek Seidman ,
Truthout
June 27, 2025
Truthout
Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott arrives for a hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on February 11, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
News
|
Economy & Labor

Senate GOP Moves to Slash Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Budget by Half

The new attack on the CFPB comes after an earlier proposal to eliminate its entire budget violated reconciliation rules.
By
Jake Johnson ,
CommonDreams
June 27, 2025
Truthout
Protesters hold 'Tax the rich' placards during a march against government cuts on June 7, 2025, in London, United Kingdom.
News
|
Economy & Labor

Billionaires’ Wealth Has Skyrocketed by Over $6 Trillion Over the Past Decade

A new Oxfam report found the wealth of the global 1 percent has increased by $33.9 trillion since 2015.
By
Jake Johnson ,
CommonDreams
June 26, 2025
Truthout
President Donald Trump arrives before the start of the North Atlantic Council Plenary Session on the second day of the 2025 NATO Summit on June 25, 2025, in The Hague, Netherlands.
Interview
|
Economy & Labor

Trump Is Setting the US Economy Up for Another Great Financial Crisis

Trump and tech capitalists like Elon Musk are trying to become kingpins of a largely unregulated financial system.
By
C.J. Polychroniou ,
Truthout
June 26, 2025
Truthout
Kristin Gillbrand wears blue
News
|
Economy & Labor

Senate Democrats Help GOP Pass Crypto Bill That Critics Call Flawed

The GENIUS ACT would “create a superhighway for Donald Trump's corruption,” Sen Elizabeth Warren told Rolling Stone.
By
Eloise Goldsmith ,
CommonDreams
June 18, 2025
Truthout

News

  • Culture & Media
  • Economy & Labor
  • Education & Youth
  • Environment & Health
  • Human Rights
  • Immigration
  • LGBTQ Rights
  • Politics & Elections
  • Prisons & Policing
  • Racial Justice
  • Reproductive Rights
  • War & Peace
  • Series & Podcasts

Series

  • Struggle and Solidarity: Writing Toward Palestinian Liberation
  • Despair and Disparity: The Uneven Burdens of COVID-19
  • Human Rights and Global Wrongs
  • The Road to Abolition
  • The Public Intellectual
  • Movement Memos
  • Voting Wrongs
  • Challenging the Corporate University
  • Covering Climate Now

More

  • About
  • Donate
  • Manage Your Donation
  • Support Our Work
  • Subscribe
  • Submission Guidelines
  • Financial Information
  • Privacy Policy
  • Memorial Essay Prize
  • Truthout Center for Grassroots Journalism
  • Job Openings
  • Contact Us
  • Facebook Facebook Circle Icon
  • Bluesky Bluesky Circle Icon
  • Flipboard Flipboard Circle Icon
  • Instagram Instagram Circle Icon
  • Twitter Twitter Circle Icon
  • RSS RSS Circle Icon

Never Miss Another Story

Get the news you want, delivered to your inbox every day.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
© 2025 Truthout

Support grassroots media

Truthout’s independent journalism is funded by readers like you. Support journalism for the 99 percent: Make a one-time or monthly donation today.