Tenants and activists in three California cities are heading into the final stretch of their pro-rent control campaigns, battling Big Real Estate for months. In San Pablo and Redwood City, activists are telling residents to vote “yes” on local ballot measures that will establish rent control. In Salinas, a grassroots movement of tenants and activists are urging a “no” vote on a measure that would repeal rent control and other tenant protections. Voters will make their decisions on November 3.
Housing Is A Human Right previously reported that the California Apartment Association and California Association of Realtors—two major lobbying groups for Big Real Estate—are trying to pass anti-tenant Measure H in Salinas and stop pro-rent control Measure E in Redwood City, respectively. In San Pablo, tenants and activists are fighting city council members to pass pro-rent control Measure S.
Tenants in Salinas, Redwood City, and San Pablo have all struggled with unfair, excessive rents and need immediate relief, especially from the predatory business practices of Big Real Estate. Rent control is the only tool that can effectively protect tenants, who include seniors on fixed incomes, working-class families, students, and others.
If tenants and activists are successful in all three cities, it would galvanize the housing justice movement across the United States. Corporate landlords and their lobbying groups understand that, and fear that they won’t be able to charge exorbitant rents, impacting the outsized profits they’ve made for years off the backs of hard-working tenants. So Big Real Estate is desperate to win on November 3.
Corporate landlords have lived extravagant lifestyles by charging skyrocketing rents. Billionaire Stephen Schwarzman has bought multi-million-dollar mansions in England, France, Newport, Jamaica, East Hampton, Palm Beach, and New York City—and he recently purchased a $400-million superyacht called “Destiny.”
The Real Deal also reported that real estate hotshots spend millions on superyachts, parties, chartered jets, high-end car collections, and even hiring rapper Drake to perform at a bat mitzvah.
It should be no surprise.
Between 2010 and 2019, Zillow reported, renters in the U.S. paid landlords a staggering $4.5 trillion in rent. At the same time, housing affordability and homelessness crises started to pop up in numerous states, especially in California.
In addition, over the past several years, corporate landlords have used a RealPage software program to collude and wildly inflate rents, which is illegal. The RealPage scandal triggered numerous investigations and lawsuits, including one by the Department of Justice and several state attorneys general.
The Biden administration found RealPage clients had hit tenants in America, including California, with an extra $3.8 billion in rent for 2023—$3.8 billion for only one year. Add up the years, and you come up with an enormous amount of money, which was then used to buy superyachts, luxury cars, and mansions.
The tenants seeking relief in Redwood City, Salinas, and San Pablo are not super-rich, but middle and working class. They don’t own mansions. They can barely afford overpriced one- and two-bedroom apartments. And they have never hired Drake to sing at their parties.
Patrick Range McDonald is a veteran investigative reporter and the award-winning advocacy journalist for Housing Is A Human Right.