Outside the real estate industry, most Californians have never heard of Barry Altshuler, and he probably likes it that way.

Barry is president of the California Apartment Association board of directors, executive vice president at Equity Residential, and a major figure behind Big Real Estate’s multi-million-dollar push to stop rent control in California.

For more than 20 years, Barry has been a top executive at Equity Residential, a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns 79,200 units in cities all over America, and he is estimated to be worth $30.1 billion.

As president of the CAA board of directors, the most powerful landlord lobbying group in California, he has constantly, and aggressively, opposed renter protections as the state’s housing affordability crisis has worsened.

The CAA, under Barry’s leadership, has engaged in some rather despicable behavior, such as:

• Spreading misinformation campaigns to repeal renter protections in El Cerrito and Mountain View
• Sponsoring the leading campaign committee that stopped a 2018 statewide ballot measure that sought to expand rent control
• Championing a recent California State Assembly bill that attempted to silence the housing advocacy work of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, (that ultimately went down in defeat)
• Attempting to repeal a temporary rent freeze in Santa Ana during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Barry is one of the top real estate honchos trying to stop Proposition 21, November ballot measure that seeks to expand rent control in California. So far, the CAA has raised $15.1 million. Equity Residential has contributed a whopping $2.2 million to that effort.

The supporters of Prop 21 represent hard-working Californians, who spend huge chunks of their paychecks on sky-rocketing, unsustainable rents. Barry is the epitome of corporate greed. Want to learn more about what Barry has been up to? Read here.

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