The Real Dirt is a regular column by award-winning advocacy journalist Patrick Range McDonald that exposes the real estate industry’s lies, scams, and other unscrupulous acts, which impact the lives of millions.
The California Apartment Association, the deep-pocketed front group for many of the nation’s largest corporate landlords, has been at it again. This time, it weakened a rent stabilization ordinance in the city of Concord in Northern California, with the City Council approving changes earlier this week. (A final vote, which is considered merely procedural, takes place on April 22.) Instead of having rent caps tied to the Consumer Price Index or a three percent increase (whichever is lower), Concord politicians gave in to the CAA and corporate landlords and set a fixed rate of five percent. That can result in rent hikes of more than $1,000 annually, which puts the screws to poor and middle- and working-class tenants, especially people on fixed incomes. As usual, the CAA, which goes anywhere in California to stop or weaken local rent stabilization policies, bragged about its greed-driven effort on the behalf of billionaire corporate landlords.
The California Apartment Association hasn’t stopped there. While widespread rent gouging has taken place after the wildfires in Los Angeles County, the CAA has fought a state bill, AB 246, that would stop predatory landlords from charging outrageous rents for a year. It’s important legislation because people who have lost everything in the fires are dealing with rent gouging when looking for a new home, and current tenants have been evicted by predatory landlords so they can jack up the rent for prospective tenants. AB 246 ends all of that. But the CAA doesn’t care: it always puts profits over people. Regardless, Housing Is A Human Right and other groups are working day and night to get the bill passed. It’s a tough fight since the CAA delivers millions in corporate-landlord campaign cash to state politicians, but we’re asking Californians to immediately call their assembly members to tell them to vote “yes” on AB 246.
Then there’s Invitation Homes, one of the largest corporate landlords of single-family home rentals in the United States. The company has a long track record of treating its tenants poorly, and it recently agreed to a $48-million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission for “unlawful behavior against renters.” So now the Los Angeles Times reported this month that Invitation Homes pulled a bait and switch on a Los Angeles couple that left them without a home. The couple had been begging the corporate landlord to repair their home for years. When the company finally inspected the property, it told the tenants to move out so repairs could be done. But instead of fixing the place, Invitation Homes decided to sell the home – the bait and switch. The stunned couple are now suing the corporate landlord, which has contributed millions to stop the expansion of rent regulations in California.
While millions of Americans struggled to pay unfair, sky-high rents, Bloomberg reported that uber-rich corporate landlord Stephen Schwarzman grabbed more than $1 billion in pay and dividends in 2024. He did that by charging outrageous rents, which helped him buy mansions all over the world, including a massive estate in England. Schwarzman is the CEO of Blackstone Group, which United Nations experts said is one of the leading companies that fueled the global housing affordability crisis. Schwarzman has the same kind of greedy mindset as the CAA: profits over people. Blackstone also contributed millions in campaign cash to stop the expansion of rent regulations in California.
We often bring this up because the mainstream media routinely fail to report it: California YIMBY and YIMBY Action, who have tried to frame themselves as progressives, actually helped the California Apartment Association, Invitation Homes, and Blackstone to kill Proposition 33 in California. The 2024 ballot measure would have ended statewide rent control restrictions and allowed cities to pass new rent regulations. But California YIMBY and YIMBY Action ditched the housing justice movement and hard-hit renters and worked with corporate landlords to stop Prop 33. In other words, the Corporate YIMBY groups showed their true colors: YIMBY = Big Real Estate.
By the way, if you have a question about housing-related issues, such as the doings of the California Apartment Association or a corporate landlord, send us a message at Housing Is A Human Right’s Facebook, Instagram, or Bluesky page and we’ll try to answer it in our monthly column “Three Questions.”
Until next time…
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