California Apartment Association’s campaign contributions’ corrupting influence

California Apartment Association’s campaign contributions’ corrupting influence

By Lynda Carson - March 10, 2019

Oakland - During 2018, the corrupting influence of the California Apartment Association (CAA) and its allies in the rental housing industry had a particular odor that wreaked of corruption throughout the halls of California’s state legislature in Sacramento.

According to the last 990 tax filing of the California Apartment Association (CAA) for 2016, the CAA had gross receipts of $7,911,623. After subtracting their liabilities from their assets, they still had net assets or a fund balance of $5,870,158. According to their mission statement, “THE ORGANIZATION'S MISSION IS TO REPRESENT THE ETHICAL MEMBERS OF THE RENTAL HOUSING INDUSTRY IN ALL ASPECTS OF GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS WITH IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, AND TO PROVIDE INFORMATION, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES WHICH CONTRIBUTE TO THE SUCCESS OF THEIR BUSINESSES.”

Additionally, according to the latest 990 tax filing for the CAA’s Political Action Committee in 2017, they had gross receipts of $1,768,509. After subtracting their liabilities from their assets, they had net assets or a fund balance of $1,962,117. According to the CAA’s mission statement of the Political Action Committee, to “PARTICIPATE IN CALIFORNIA STATE-AND-LOCAL ELECTIONS.”

Indeed, according to the records of the Secretary of State in California, the CAA’s Political Action Committee gave $150,000 on 10/22/2018 to the California Republican Party, plus $65,000 on 04/02/2018 to the California Democratic Party, in addition to a vast fortune in campaign contributions to an array of politicians who belong to the Republican Party and Democratic Party that are beholden to the interests of the CAA, and the rental housing industry.

An additional list of politicians receiving campaign contributions that are beholden to the CAA and the interests of the rental housing industry are SHOCKING. The list reveals the scope and vastness of the corrupting influence on politicians accepting the dirty money flowing from the CAA, and the rental housing industry to politicians throughout California.

The corrupting influence of the CAA and the rental housing industry on the California legislature in 2018 resulted in the intentional weakening of AB 2434, a bill to extend the time renters need to respond to unlawful detainers/eviction notices. This was in addition to AB 1506, a bill to repeal the Costa-Hawkins law was killed in committee, and AB 2925, a bill that would have required landlords to state a cause when evicting renters was defeated on the Assembly floor. Additionally, the CAA wants to defeat SB 529, a bill to protect tenant associations during rent strikes. The CAA also wants to kill AB 36, a bill to stabilize rental prices in the effort to increase the availability of affordable housing throughout California.

According to BallotPedia, Proposition 10, an initiative to terminate the dreaded Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, resulted in the CAA and its allies raising $71,366,691 to defeat the voter ballot initiative. “The California Apartment Association (CAA) and the California Rental Housing Association (CalRHA) each organized a PAC to oppose Proposition 10. An additional three PACs formed to oppose the ballot initiative. Together, the five committees had raised a combined $71.37 million. The largest contributors included the California Association of Realtors Issues Mobilization PAC ($8.00 million), Blackstone Property Partners, L.P. and affiliated holdings ($5.81 million), and Essex Property Trust, Inc. ($5.62 million). Both Tom Bannon, CEO of CAA, and Larry Cannizzaro, president of CalRHA, said their groups' opposition is about private investment in rental housing, among other issues. Proposition 10, according to Bannon and Cannizzaro, would make the state's housing crisis worse because rent control would discourage investment.”

The corrupting influence of the CAA and the rental housing industry in California has resulted in ever increasing rents for the renters of California. Less affordable housing exists in California as a result of the greed and collusion throughout the rental housing industry to oppose and fight back against any and all attempts to create reasonable rent control laws, and just cause eviction protections meant to protect the renters of California from being displaced from their communities.

The CAA has been stalking the tenant’s movement, and the CAA has been meddling in the affairs of cities throughout California that are interested in having rent control laws, and just cause eviction protections to help renters from needlessly being displaced from their housing and communities by greedy landlords in the rental housing industry.

According to Investor’s Business Daily, during 2018 some of the highest rents across the nation are in San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, San Jose, and Oakland.

Because of the activities of the members of the CAA and the rental housing industry, Oakland has the fastest pace for gentrification and displacement in the Bay Area, and the rents in Oakland keep going higher, and higher.

Some say, that one way to fight back against the California Apartment Association (CAA) and the corrupting influence of the rental housing industry would be for renters throughout California to appear at the CAA’s Legislative Conference in Sacramento on May 29, between 9:00AM & 4:00PM, to protest against their activities. The CAA’s Legislative Conference in Sacramento is being held at the Sheraton Grand Sacramento Hotel, in the Grand Nave Ballroom.

Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com

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