Shockingly, corporate landlord Stephen Schwarzman made more than $1 billion in pay and dividends in 2024, according to Bloomberg. Schwarzman’s company, Blackstone Group, was also a major contributor, in 2024, to Big Real Estate’s successful campaign to stop Proposition 33, which would have ended rent control restrictions in California. By killing that initiative, Schwarzman and other billionaires can keep charging wildly inflated rents and make ungodly amounts of money off the backs of hard-working tenants.
Schwarzman is the CEO of Blackstone Group, one of the largest corporate landlords in the world and known for fueling the global housing affordability crisis, according to United Nations housing experts. For years, Schwarzman has been ranked as one of the most wealthy people in the world: Bloomberg estimated his net worth to be around $51.3 billion.
In 2020, Housing Is A Human Right published an exclusive, widely-read special report titled “Modern-Day Robber Baron: The Sins of Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman.” It details everything from charging exorbitant rents to using his political power to stop activists from repealing California’s rent control restrictions to his luxurious lifestyle that’s financed by his tenants.
“Schwarzman’s billions bankrolled swanky parties for the rich and famous, including an ‘epic’ 70th birthday bash in Palm Beach,” the special report noted. “Reportedly costing as much as $20 million, the extravagant blow out featured entertainment by superstar Gwen Stefani and the Jersey Boys cast and was attended by Donatella Versace, art dealer Larry Gagosian, and Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, among other luminaries. ‘Steve loves parties,’ Gagosian told Bloomberg.”
The special report added: “Schwarzman also laid out millions for opulent mansions in Saint-Tropez, Jamaica, East Hampton, and Palm Beach.”
So while middle- and working-class tenants can barely afford a small apartment, Schwarzman is living it up in mansions all over the world.
It’s why activists tried to end California’s statewide rent control restrictions in 2018, 2020, and 2024 – people needed protection against corporate landlords like Schwarzman who charge excessive rents so they can buy another multi-million-dollar home.
In response, Schwarzman and Blackstone continually shelled out millions to kill pro-rent control measures in California.
To stop Prop 10, in 2018, Blackstone delivered $7.4 million to the No on Prop 10 campaign. In 2020, Blackstone used a shell game to stop Prop 21, sending $7 million to the California Business Roundtable Issues PAC, which then contributed to No on Prop 21. And, in 2024, Blackstone gave $2 million to the California Apartment Association Issues Committee to kill Prop 33. All of the measures would have ended statewide rent control restrictions.
Those large contributions paid off: Blackstone could continue to charge exorbitant rents, and Schwarzman could keep buying spectacular mansions. In 2022, he bought a historic country estate in England for $85.5 million. In the meantime, the housing affordability and homelessness crises in the U.S. only worsened.
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