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In an ambitious effort to address the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles, a coalition of housing advocates, labor unions and progressive activist groups plans to file paperwork Thursday for a ballot measure that would increase taxes on real estate transactions in the city to fund permanent housing for homeless people and those at risk of ending up on the street.
The organizers hope to collect nearly 65,000 signatures by spring to place the tax proposal on the November 2022 ballot.
The measure would levy a 4% tax on property sales above $5 million that would rise to 5.5% on transactions above $10 million. The buyer or seller would owe $200,000 on a $5-million sale, for example.
“This is really about millionaires and billionaires paying their fair share to have a transformative approach to solving our housing crisis,” said Laura Raymond, director of the Alliance for Community Transit-Los Angeles, or ACT-LA, and a leader of the ballot measure coalition.
“This affects folks who are very privileged who have made money off increases in property values, and inequity is one of the reasons why we’re in the situation we are in. So it’s making sure that we’re sort of looking out for each other in protecting our neighbors,” Raymond said.
L.A. voters want the government to focus on shelter for homeless people living in the streets, even if those efforts are short term, a poll has found.
The coalition said the tax would have applied to about 3% of all property sales in the city from March 2019 to March 2020, generating about $800 million.
The proposed ballot initiative, United to House L.A., could benefit from...