The Real Dirt is a monthly 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.
Many of the largest corporate landlords in the country are once again beefing up the coffers of the California Apartment Association, aiming to buy political favors, kill tenant protections, and shut down the vital work of housing justice activists. They also like to carry out some dirty tricks here and there.
That became clear earlier this month when the California Apartment Association’s campaign cash filings became available at the California Secretary of State website. As we noted in a post on X, Essex Property Trust delivered $30,995 to the California Apartment Association Independent Expenditure Committee, AIR Communities shelled out $16,995, UDR forked over $24,682, and AvalonBay Communities delivered $25,720. Equity Residential also sent $105,000 to that committee. All of them are among the largest corporate landlords in the United States.
The CAA then carried out a shell game, contributing $25,000 of the corporate landlords’ cash to the California Apartment Association Housing Solutions Committee, $125,000 to a political action committee called Fighting For Our Future, and $40,000 to JOBSPAC, a committee sponsored by the California Chamber of Commerce.
The $125,000 to Fighting For Our Future is an interesting one. It received contributions from the California Apartment Association, the California Building Industry Association, the California Association of Realtors, and the California Alliance for Progress and Education. Fighting For Our Future then spent $216,722 in independent expenditure money to support California State Sen. Tony Strickland, who faced a special election in March. With that major backing from Big Real Estate, he won.
Even more interesting, Strickland read a carefully worded speech as a Huntington Beach City Council member last year, saying Proposition 33, which sought to repeal statewide rent control restrictions, would be good to stop housing production in his city. The California Apartment Association, the California Building Industry Association, and the California Association of Realtors all opposed Prop 33, which was sponsored by AIDS Healthcare Foundation and Housing Is A Human Right, but Strickland essentially said he was for it.
Strickland is a conservative Republican, so some Democrats, such as Toni Atkins and Buffy Wicks, among others, said Prop 33 was a tool of Republicans to stop housing production in California, holding up Strickland as evidence. The whole thing seemed fishy, especially since Strickland later said he wasn’t for Prop 33 and rent control, and Republicans, in general, hate rent control. He also received $5,500 in campaign cash from the California Apartment Association Political Action Committee in June 2024 – only a few months after he read his carefully worded speech.
In a special report at Medium, I made the case that Strickland was part of a dirty trick carried out by the California Apartment Association and some Democrats to weaken support for Prop 33 from Democratic voters. With the California Apartment Association and the California Association of Realtors spending big to help Strickland win his 2025 special election, it’s more proof that something suspect was happening behind the scenes between Big Real Estate and Strickland in an effort to kill Prop 33. You can read all the details at my Medium page.
Prop 33, by the way, was backed by a broad coalition of housing justice groups, social justice organizations, and civic leaders such as U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Maxine Waters, and labor and civil rights icon Dolores Huerta. Yes on Prop 33 was hardly a Republican plot to stop housing production. If anything, it was a pro-tenant, pro-affordable housing, pro-rent control ballot measure supported by many of the most progressive leaders and groups in the country.
But that’s how the California Apartment Association and corporate landlords roll. They use their campaign cash to finance political tricks and massive misinformation campaigns so corporate landlords can keep charging outrageous rents, forcing people into homelessness.
The shady, predatory tactics of Big Real Estate isn’t just a California issue. Throughout August, there were articles about corporate landlords slapping tenants with unfair, excessive rent hikes in Idaho, New Jersey, Colorado, and Illinois. All of it shows that tenants need to be protected against the underhanded dealings of the real estate industry, and rent control or rent stabilization is the only way to do that.
Until next time…
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