It gets little, if any, media coverage, but a small group of corporate landlords are overwhelmingly funding the No on Prop 33 and Yes on Prop 34 campaigns in California. Additionally, several of those companies are the largest corporate landlords in the nation – and they’re mired in the ongoing RealPage Scandal. Their spending provides nearly $100 million for a massive misinformation campaign to trick and confuse voters.
Proposition 33, supported by a broad coalition of housing justice groups, labor unions, and civic leaders such as U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and labor icon Dolores Huerta, aims to end rent control restrictions in California. That will allow cities to expand rent control – and urgently address the housing affordability crisis.
Studies by USC, UC Berkeley, and a group of top economists have found that rent control is a key tool to protect tenants against unfair, excessive rents. It’s no small matter. Eviction Lab, a prestigious think tank at Princeton University, found that unaffordable rents lead to higher mortality rates and UC San Francisco reported that sky-high rents are fueling more homelessness.
Corporate landlords, however, only have bigger profits in mind – no matter the consequences to Californians. They understand that rent control will stop their ability to continue to price gouge tenants. So corporate landlords are shelling out tens of millions in campaign cash to kill Prop 33.
Proposition 34, which has been described as a “revenge” ballot measure, seeks to stop AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s housing advocacy work on rent control and other tenant protections. AIDS Healthcare Foundation and Housing Is A Human Right sponsor Proposition 33, and corporate landlords are funding Prop 34.
Numerous newspaper editorial boards have urged Californians to vote “no” on the dangerous, anti-democratic initiative. The National Organization for Women, UNITE HERE! Local 11, Consumer Watchdog, and the California Democratic Party Renters Council also oppose Prop 34.
Corporate landlords and its lobbying group, the California Apartment Association, are carrying out a kind of shell game to finance No on Prop 33 and Yes on Prop 34. First, corporate landlords contribute to the California Apartment Association Issues Committee. Then the CAA moves that money to No on 33: Californians for Responsible Housing and Yes on 34: Protect Patients Now.
Both committees are sponsored by the California Apartment Association.
The Top 10 contributors to the California Apartment Association Issues Committee include several of the largest corporate landlords in the country. So Big Real Estate is not only trying to stop the expansion of rent control in California, it is also aiming to silence AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a global nonprofit that’s saved millions of lives around the world.
Here are the Top 10 contributors to the California Apartment Association Issues Committee, according to state campaign filings:
- Essex Property Trust: $28.7 million
- Equity Residential: $20.4 million
- AvalonBay Communities: $18.1 million
- Prometheus Real Estate Group: $6.9 million
- UDR: $5.9 million
- Prime Administration: $3.3 million
- R & V Management: $2.9 million
- AIR Communities and Blackstone Group (Blackstone owns AIR Communities): $2.8 million
- Richard Tod Spieker/Spieker Companies: $1.7 million
- Woodmont Real Estate Services: $1.57 million
Additional corporate landlords contributing $1 million or more include Shea Homes ($1.56 million), Sequoia Equities ($1.44 million), Carmel Partners ($1.41 million), and Jackson Square Properties ($1.1 million).
According to the National Multifamily Housing Council’s Top 50 largest apartment owners list, AvalonBay Communities, Equity Residential, Essex Property Trust, UDR, and AIR Communities are among the largest corporate landlords in the United States. All of them are trying to kill Prop 33 and pass Prop 34.
The total amount shelled out by the 14 corporate landlords to the California Apartment Association Issues Committee is a whopping $98,474,486. In all, the California Apartment Association Issues Committee has raised $119,917,365. Those 14 corporate landlords, in other words, have contributed 82 percent of all money raised by the California Apartment Association Issues Committee. It’s an astounding number.
So only 14 corporate landlords, five of whom are the largest in the country, are trying to kill rent control expansion in California – and are seeking to stop AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s housing justice work through Prop 34.
In addition, Essex Property Trust, Equity Residential, and UDR are mired in the nationwide RealPage Scandal, which recently grabbed headlines when the Department of Justice and several state attorneys general sued RealPage for price-fixing tactics that have harmed millions of American renters. Essex Property Trust, Equity Residential, and UDR used RealPage’s highly controversial software program to jack up rents.
Oddly, the mainstream media have largely failed to report about the small group of corporate landlords that are funding No on Prop 33 and Yes on Prop 34 in California.