The California Apartment Association often frames itself as a defender of mom-and-pop landlords, but that’s anything but the truth. Research shows time and again that many of the nation’s largest corporate landlords use the CAA as a front group to make outsized profits, fueling the housing affordability crisis. A recent investigation that I carried out only underlines that fact.
Since 2018, Housing Is A Human Right has been keeping tabs on corporate landlord contributions to the California Apartment Association’s four political committees. Several of those corporate landlords are the largest in the country: Essex Property Trust, AvalonBay Communities, and Equity Residential, to name a few.
The California Apartment Association and the nation’s largest corporate landlords play a shell game in which they deliver major cash to a CAA political committee. That committee then sends sizable campaign contributions to state and local politicians in California.
In 2021, for example, I wrote an exclusive report about the CAA’s shell games – something the mainstream media, as far as I know, has never done. What I found was astounding: the California Apartment Association, using corporate landlord cash, contributed to not only state politicians, but also county and city politicians in 51 out of California’s 58 counties.
In 2019 and 2020, the California Apartment Association Political Action Committee sent corporate landlord cash to Nate Miley for Alameda County Supervisor, Even Low for State Assembly, and Toni Atkins for State Senate. During that same period, the CAA’s Housing Solutions Committee delivered corporate landlord money to incumbent politicians or candidates in San Jose, Culver City, San Bruno, and Burbank, among many other cities.
Read “Special Investigation: California Apartment Association’s Deep-Pocketed Campaign to Kill Tenant Protections” for more details.
The nation’s largest corporate landlords have used that strategy – buying political favors and influence – for years.
Most recently, I wrote “Special Report: California Apartment Association’s Big-Money Schemes to Kill Prop 33 and Prop 34.” In 2024, Prop 33 aimed to repeal statewide rent control restrictions in California while Prop 34 sought to stop AIDS Healthcare Foundation from using certain money for housing advocacy. Prop 33, which was sponsored by AHF, was defeated last November. Prop 34, sponsored by the California Apartment Association, barely passed. Housing Is A Human Right is the housing advocacy division of AHF.
I found a number of things, including the fact that many of the country’s largest corporate landlords – Equity Residential, AvalonBay Communities, Essex Property Trust, Camden Property Trust, GID, UDR, MG Properties, Greystar, AIR Communities, and The Related Companies – quietly delivered millions in campaign cash to one or more of the CAA’s political committees.
That money was used to secure favors from state and local politicians; kill the expansion of rent control in California through Prop 33; and harm AHF’s housing advocacy through Prop 34.
Some of the politicians who received major campaign cash from the nation’s largest corporate landlords and the CAA include Gov. Gavin Newsom, State. Sen. Toni Atkins, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, and Assemblymember Evan Low. They all officially endorsed the corporate landlords’ No on Prop 33 campaign.
Interestingly, Low is now under investigation for dozens of potential state law violations identified by the California Fair Political Practices Commission, CalMatters recently reported.
In 2024, the nation’s largest corporate landlords, through the California Apartment Association, also delivered campaign cash to influence the outcome of local ballot measures in National City, Richmond, San Mateo, Larkspur, Fairfax, and Santa Ana.
The measures in Larkspur, Fairfax, and Santa Ana aimed to kill rent control. Corporate landlords won in Larkspur and Fairfax, but tenants and activists were victorious in Santa Ana.
That’s another thing. What’s playing out in California is a clear battle: it’s activists and tenants versus billionaire corporate landlords. YIMBY groups have also jumped into the fight, abandoning housing justice organizations and labor unions to work with corporate landlords.
California YIMBY, YIMBY Action, and Abundant LA, who endorsed the corporate landlords’ No on Prop 33 campaign in 2024, are often called “Corporate YIMBYs” by activists.
In the end, the California Apartment Association is the front group for the nation’s largest corporate landlords. That means that the CAA is concerned about one thing: protecting the outsized profits of Big Real Estate. It does not care, at all, about solving the housing affordability crisis – that would not be good for corporate landlords’ bottom line.
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