AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s Years-Long Battle Against Corporate Landlord Greed
Since 2018, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the parent organization of Housing Is A Human Right, has been battling against the greed of the largest corporate landlords in the United States, and it has no intention of stopping — Big Real Estate’s predatory tactics and excessive rents have fueled the housing affordability and homelessness crises in California. Now, in 2024, AHF wants to finally rein in corporate landlords by passing Proposition 33 in November.
In 2018, AIDS Healthcare Foundation sponsored Proposition 10, which aimed to repeal statewide rent control restrictions in California. A broad coalition of housing justice groups, labor unions, and social justice groups supported the “Yes on 10” campaign, believing that rent control is a key tool to stabilize the housing affordability crisis.
In fact, studies published, in 2018, by USC, UC Berkeley, and UCLA found that rent control would urgently help poor and middle- and working-class tenants drowning under sky-high rents in California.
Corporate landlords, however, were furious. Many of them, such as Essex Property Trust, AvalonBay Communities, and Equity Residential, operate in multiple cities, charging top-dollar rents with no regulations to protect tenants. The corporate landlords could do whatever they pleased. Proposition 10 threatened to stop that by allowing cities to expand rent control and rein in predatory business practices. In other words, Big Real Estate would no longer be allowed to make trillions in revenue by charging outrageous rents.
In 2018, Californians largely supported rent control, but corporate landlords and their lobbying group, the California Apartment Association, rolled out a multi-million-dollar misinformation campaign to trick and confuse voters about Prop 10. Unfortunately, it worked — the pro-rent control initiative lost on Election Day.
Two years later, in 2020, AIDS Healthcare Foundation decided to move forward with another ballot measure, Proposition 21, that would reform statewide rent control restrictions. AHF believed that the housing affordability and homelessness crises were so dire, with millions of people facing life-altering consequences, that a quick return to the ballot was desperately needed.
Eviction Lab, for example, recently found that unaffordable rents are linked to higher mortality rates, and The Guardian reported that deaths among the unhoused were only increasing year after year. UC San Francisco also found that sky-high rents are forcing people into homelessness. As AIDS Healthcare Foundation has routinely pointed out over the years, housing is a serious public health issue — and it demands a swift response.
But once again, corporate landlords and the California Apartment Association rolled out a misinformation campaign. In 2020, Big Real Estate spent nearly $100 million to defeat Prop 21.
This year, AIDS Healthcare Foundation and Housing Is A Human Right are sponsoring another statewide ballot measure to repeal rent control restrictions — and again it’s supported by a coalition of housing justice groups, labor unions, and social justice organizations. It’s called Proposition 33.
But the nation’s largest corporate landlords and the California Apartment Association are taking their opposition to a new, disturbing level. The CAA and Big Real Estate are pushing forward a ballot measure, Proposition 34, that would stop AHF’s housing advocacy work — and take away AHF’s ability to participate in the democratic process. The National Organization for Women, Consumer Watchdog, and other groups strongly oppose Proposition 34.
In the meantime, AHF will not be bullied by Big Real Estate, and it will continue to move forward with Proposition 33. AHF will always fight for what’s right, especially when taking on the destructive greed of corporate landlords — too many lives hang in the balance.
Patrick Range McDonald, the author of this article, is the award-winning advocacy journalist for Housing Is A Human Right.
