Housing Is A Human Right applauds the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for voting today to oppose SB 50, the pro-gentrification bill proposed by California State Sen. Scott Wiener. The supervisors understand that SB 50 pushes trickle-down, Reaganomics housing policy that will be a boon for Wiener’s Big Real Estate campaign contributors, but will fuel gentrification.
“Scott Wiener’s SB 50 pushes more luxury housing for a housing affordability crisis,” says René Christian Moya, director of Housing Is A Human Right. “The trickle-down housing bill will generate billions in revenues for Big Real Estate, but will only worsen ongoing gentrification crises in California’s cities.”
Moya adds, “Reaganomics policies never worked for hard-working people, but that’s what Wiener is proposing with SB 50. We need to help, not harm, middle- and working-class residents, especially people of color. They are already getting slammed by unfair, excessive rents and gentrification.”
In the 2019 special report “Selling Out California: Scott Wiener’s Money Ties to Big Real Estate,” Housing Is A Human Right revealed that the state senator had raked in nearly 700 campaign contributions from the real estate industry for his 2016 state senate campaign, totaling $574,276. So far, for his 2020 re-election campaign, Wiener’s has accepted 208 contributions from Big Real Estate, totaling $228,837.
Wiener has relied on that real estate money — $803,113 in total — to attain and remain in office. He owes Big Real Estate major favors. He’s now paying back real estate campaign contributors with SB 50. The flawed, pro-gentrification bill is not about solving the housing affordability crisis.
Housing Is A Human Right, the housing advocacy division of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, was a leading organization that helped defeat SB 827 (SB 50’s predecessor). HHR also helped put the brakes on SB 50 earlier this year. The organization will vehemently oppose the trickle-down housing bill in 2020.
California doesn’t need Reaganomics solutions that benefit corporate developers and landlords while harming the middle- and working-class. We must protect tenants through stronger protections such as rent control and just cause eviction; preserve middle- and working-class communities; and produce truly affordable housing.