Equity Residential, Essex Property Trust, and AvalonBay Communities – three of the largest corporate landlords in the United States – have recently delivered a whopping $5.1 million to the California Apartment Association’s Independent Expenditure Committee. That money has been used to fund little-known political action committees that aim to influence elections and, ultimately, to kill tenant protections. Like in the past, the CAA is used as a middle-man by corporate landlords that don’t want to be directly connected to elected officials and political campaigns.
For years, the California Apartment Association, the powerful lobbying group for Big Real Estate, has received millions of dollars in campaign contributions from corporate landlords to stop pro-tenant ballot measures and legislation and to buy political favors and influence. Big Real Estate sends major money to one of the CAA’s four political action committees, and then the California Apartment Association carries out a kind of shell game by delivering campaign cash to politicians and other political committees.
The scheme allows corporate landlords to largely avoid public scrutiny, with only the California Apartment Association connected to an elected official, candidate, or political campaign.
Corporate landlords have good reason for such secrecy: many have troubling track records that include mistreating tenants, wildly increasing rents, and aggressively evicting tenants.
Equity Residential and Essex Property Trust, for example, have been mired in the ongoing RealPage scandal, in which they used a RealPage software program that allegedly helped them to collude with other corporate landlords and charge inflated rent prices. The nationwide scandal has resulted in numerous state and federal investigations and antitrust lawsuits, including one by the Department of Justice and several state attorneys general.
Recently, Equity Residential agreed to a class action settlement of $56 million that was filed in federal court in Tennessee. Other corporate landlords, such as Greystar, have made similar deals because of their involvement in the RealPage scandal.
Currently, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the parent organization of Housing Is A Human Right, is sponsoring a state bill called SB 295, which bans rent-gouging software in California.
Between 2018 and 2024, AIDS Healthcare Foundation also sponsored three ballot measures to end statewide rent control restrictions in California. In total, the California Apartment Association and corporate landlords, including Essex Property Trust, Equity Residential, and AvalonBay Communities, spent more than $310 million in political money to successfully kill the initiatives and pass a 2024 proposition to try to silence AHF’s housing advocacy work.
Today, Essex Property Trust, Equity Residential, and AvalonBay Communities continue to shell out massive amounts of cash to impact housing policies in California.
Between August 2025 and March 2026, Essex Property Trust delivered $2,888,770 to the California Apartment Association Independent Expenditure Committee. Equity Residential sent $2,018,220 to the same political committee between November 2025 and March 2026. And AvalonBay Communities handed over $286,732 between July and October of 2025 – the contributions weren’t filed with the California Secretary of State until April 2026.
That makes for a grand total of $5,193,722.
The California Apartment Association Independent Expenditure Committee then went on to contribute corporate landlord cash to a number of little-known political committees: $2.5 million to Advance California sponsored by the California Apartment Association and California Life Sciences and $500,000 to Housing Providers for Responsible Solutions in April 2026 and $250,000 to Results California: A Coalition of Housing and Energy Providers in February 2026.
The California Apartment Association Independent Expenditure Committee also spent $257,875 on polling and survey research in 2026.
Recently, in May 2026, the CAA Independent Expenditure Committee delivered $100,000 of corporate landlord cash to an obscure political action committee to oppose the California State Assembly campaign of Sara Deen, who’s endorsed by the California Teachers Association and the California Nurses Association.
Although rarely reported by the mainstream media, corporate landlords and the California Apartment Association have sought to sway elections and influence politicians throughout California for years – making it difficult for housing activists to pass pro-tenant ballot measures and legislation. As a result, middle- and working-class Californians continue to face a serious housing affordability crisis.
Patrick Range McDonald is an award-winning investigative reporter and advocacy journalist for Housing Is A Human Right.