There is currently a pitched battle between landlords and tenants over rent control. The tenants scream that the rent is “too damn high.” The landlords say that the market is the answer to the housing crisis. There doesn’t seem to be any middle ground.

In California, there are many small, mom-and-pop landlords. Today’s homeowner could be tomorrow’s landlord, as quite a few of them invest their money in rental units. As properties appreciate in value and rents go up, that small landlord accumulates a nest egg which can grow into generational wealth.

For the small landlord who has saved in order to invest in a small building, the stakes are very high. Every repair or non-payment of rent can push the small owner closer to the edge.

However, in this pitched battle, the landlords controlling the fight aren’t the mom-and-pops but rather the multibillion-dollar corporate landlords. These are the same ones who cleaned up as a result of the Great Recession after 2008. Blackstone swooped in and grabbed up foreclosures at bargain prices. Legions of homeowners became renters overnight, with their life savings wiped out. 

A few very rich people now live in the lap of luxury while the majority of Californians are just scraping by. At the top of that heap is Big Real Estate: Steven Schwarzman, the chairman and CEO of Blackstone (one of the largest landlords in the country), made $1.27 billion in 2022 and $896 million in 2023. That is enough to pay the rent of more than 50,000 Californians for a year.

As of 2024, Schwarzman’s net worth totals more than $38 billion, and yet we constantly are being told about the hardship of today’s corporate landlords who can’t afford to build low-income housing. 

Not all landlords protected

Not content with the riches derived from picking over the bones of a busted economy, the corporate landlords took a newfound interest in multifamily buildings. They organized apartment associations to protect the interests of landlords, but not all landlords. Their boards and their funding are dominated by large, corporate landlords. 

Tens of millions of dollars are invested regularly to ensure that landlords have all the power and tenants have little. It may feel irresistible for the small owner to side with Big Real Estate. Organizations like the California Apartment Association aid landlords in understanding the rental landscape and navigating government regulations. But in siding with the corporate landlords, they are too often at odds with the communities where they live and their renters who often are also their neighbors.

Something doesn’t add up. How can we tolerate such great discrepancies in California’s quality of life? Why are we accepting our state’s current status as America’s most unequal with the nation’s highest poverty rate and the most rent-burdened tenants (more than 3 million)? 

Homeless capital

Our beloved Los Angeles has become the homeless capital of the world, a place where hundreds of unhoused individuals die every year – a 300% increase over the last decade. 

The status quo simply is not tenable, and it’s high time for good-faith Californians to stand up and speak out against our housing affordability and homelessness crises. It is Code Red.

Enlightened small landlords have a simple choice to make. Will they side with the corporate landlords or with their tenants? Can their tenants afford to pay more rent than they already are? Do we want to live in the homeless capital of the world? Is the current situation sustainable?

California law guarantees landlords a fair rate of return, as it must. Small landlords have a personal investment in their property, but large corporations replace human contact with algorithms that are indifferent to a renter’s circumstances.

When the landlord is a person who must relate to another person (the renter), compromises can be made. Small landlords understand that housing is more than a place to lay your head at night. Communities are essential support systems that nurture people and provide a sense of belonging. 

Housing is not a mere commodity. It is a basic human necessity. If we don’t accept that everyone must be housed, then we will continue to see our society deteriorate. What the corporate landlords are doing in the name of small landlords is immoral, and only small landlords can take a stand, reject the status quo and choose to be on the right side of history now.

Michael Weinstein is the president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global HIV/AIDS organization, and AHF’s Healthy Housing Foundation.