In 2025, corporate landlords, many of whom are among the largest in the United States, delivered major cash to the California Apartment Association Independent Expenditure. That little-known political committee is used by Big Real Estate …
Rent Control is One Part of the Answer
Whenever billionaire corporate landlords and YIMBYs counter pro-rent control advocates, they routinely use a false argument: rent control alone won’t solve the housing affordability crisis. It’s a false argument because housing activists have never made …
The Real Dirt: RealPage Scandal, Predatory Landlords, People Power
The Real Dirt is a monthly column by award-winning advocacy journalist Patrick Range McDonald that exposes the real estate industry’s lies, scams, and other unscrupulous acts, which impact the lives of millions. It’s been three years since …
The Real Dirt: Capital Realty Group, Billionaire Steve Schwarzman, Corporate YIMBYs
The Real Dirt is a monthly column by award-winning advocacy journalist Patrick Range McDonald that exposes the real estate industry’s lies, scams, and other unscrupulous acts, which impact the lives of millions. For the past several weeks, …
Tenants and Activists Around the World Must Band Together to Fight Corporate Landlords
One of the big stories developing in the United States recently is that tenants and activists in cities all over the country have been banding together to fight Capital Realty Group, a New York-based corporate …
The Real Dirt: The Shady Dealings of Corporate Landlords and California Apartment Association
The Real Dirt is a monthly column by award-winning advocacy journalist Patrick Range McDonald that exposes the real estate industry’s lies, scams, and other unscrupulous acts, which impact the lives of millions. Many of the largest corporate …
Did Trump and Corporate Landlords Target Planned Parenthood and AIDS Healthcare Foundation?
Last month, a federal judge in Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction for Planned Parenthood that stops the Trump administration’s effort to essentially defund that organization. The political and legal issues involved in the Planned Parenthood …
The Real Dirt: California YIMBY and Big Tech Kill Tenant Protections, YIMBY Action Parties Hard, Following Big Real Estate’s Money
The Real Dirt is a monthly column by award-winning advocacy journalist Patrick Range McDonald that exposes the real estate industry’s lies, scams, and other unscrupulous acts, which impact the lives of millions. This month, Housing Is A …
Exclusive: Tech Execs and Venture Capitalists Spend Big to Help California YIMBY Kill Tenant Protections
California YIMBY has a lot of explaining to do. While middle- and working-class tenants struggle to pay sky-high rents, wealthy tech executives and venture capitalists, most of whom are based in the Bay Area, are …
Cities Across United States are Banning Price-Fixing Software for Rental Housing
A growing movement to ban price-fixing software for rental housing continues to spread across the United States. As a result of the RealPage scandal, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Jersey City, and recently Hoboken have passed …