Tenants’ rights groups press lawmakers to rein in corporate landlords

Tenant’s rights groups are asking policymakers to move on several fronts to rein in corporate landlords who they said are worsening California’s housing crisis.

Advocates said after the private equity firm Blackstone bought 5,600 apartments in the San Diego area in 2021, the company began squeezing out tenants in order to aggressively raise rents.

Amy Schur, campaign director for the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, works with a tenant group called the Blackstone Tenants Union.

“Reports have shown that when able to, let’s say a tenant moves out, they are raising rents as much as 40%, 50% for the next tenant,” Schur pointed out. “In other words, this housing is progressively becoming less and less affordable in their hands. And worse, we’re now starting to see more evictions that are absolutely unreasonable evictions.”

Blackstone did not respond to a request for comment but has said in the past it has spent $100 million to upgrade its properties and claims the average rents there are 20% below market rate.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors recently passed a motion to look into an ordinance to limit how many single-family residential properties an institutional investor or corporate landlord can own. Three similar bills failed to advance this year in the state Legislature.

At the federal level, the Stop Wall Street Looting Act, which will be reintroduced this fall, would reform the economics of private equity.

Caroline Nagy, national senior policy counsel for the nonprofit Americans for Financial Reform, noted several members of Congress have accepted thousands of dollars in contributions from Blackstone employees during this election cycle, including Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., Rep. Michelle Steel, R-Calif., Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., and Rep. John Duarte, R-Calif.

“We know that the corporate landlord lobby is spending their tenants’ hard-earned rent payments and junk fees, lobbying elected officials against tenant interests,” Nagy asserted.

This fall, California voters will consider Proposition 33, which would repeal certain limits on local rent-control ordinances. In addition, President Joe Biden recently asked Congress to give corporate landlords a choice to either cap rent increases on existing units at 5% per year or risk losing federal tax breaks.

Disclosure: Americans for Financial Reform contributes to Public News Service’s fund for reporting on Budget Policy and Priorities, Campaign Finance Reform/Money in Pol, and Social Justice. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, visit publicnewsservice.org.