Measure A1 report: HCD finds high union participation on county‑funded projects, totaling ~$2.32B in contract dollars

Annalivia (Ann Olivia) Eldred of the county Housing & Community Development department presented a special report on Measure A1 contractor utilization to the Procurement & Contracting Committee on March 16, focusing on union participation across affordable housing projects that were completed or in construction through June 30, 2025.

Eldred said preliminary data for 37 projects with union information show that 86% of construction hours were performed by union employees, with more than 2.5 million of nearly 3 million reported hours done by union labor and approximately 412,000 by non‑union workers. She said Measure A1 investments on the reporting projects totaled about $310 million and were leveraged into approximately $2.32 billion in contract dollars, of which about $1.94 billion (84%) went to union contractors.

The analysis showed that projects subject to private project labor agreements (PLAs) — required for new construction contracts of 80 or more units — employed higher rates of union contractors, while non‑PLA projects tended to award more very small contracts to small local non‑union contractors and owner‑operators. Eldred said 2,370 construction contracts were awarded across the reporting projects and that nearly 1,700 of those contracts (71%) were to union contractors; some contracts remained "unknown" because union reporting was incomplete.

HCD staff said the next contracting report (scheduled for July) will provide a deeper dive into contracting goals and minority‑ and women‑owned business participation. Supervisors asked for additional detail on units covered and whether upcoming projects (for example Broadway) would be included in subsequent reports; staff said some projects were not yet in construction and thus not captured in the current dataset.

No board action was taken; the committee took the report for information and asked for continued tracking and future reporting.