The World’s Worst Landlord

Blackstone owns and manages over 300,000 units of rental housing in the U.S., making it the largest landlord in the country.

Their CEO and co-founder Steve Schwarzman is a top financier of Trump and McConnell. He also received $1.3 billion in compensation in 2022 – an increase from his $1.1 billion 2021 salary.

Blackstone has a track record of fighting against our communities.

Here are some examples of how Blackstone is hurting Californians and exacerbating the state’s housing crisis:

  1. CEO Steve Schwartzman gave over $7 million to defeat Prop. 13 reform in 2020.

  2. Blackstone has evicted renters who were behind on only ONE MONTH of rent, these renters were predominantly low-income people of color.

  3. Blackstone has purchased properties and increased rents by up to 64% than the previous landlord was charging.

  4. In August 2022, Blackstone moved to evict tenants in San Diego County that were residing in affordable rental housing in order to convert them into market-rate housing, displacing the low-income residents with nowhere to go.

  5. In addition to the large rent increases noted above, Blackstone has spent tens of millions of dollars to oppose regulatory efforts to limit rent increases in California.

The most outrageous part of it all…

The University of California recently invested $4.5 Billion in this awful corporation.

Our public dollars should not be funneled into private corporations that hurt working class Californians and the low-income students the UC claims to serve!

Evolve California is proud to be a part of California Common Good! CA Common Good is a new coalition fighting for housing and education equity as well as reparative investments in Black and Brown communities. This coalition is leading the charge to force the UC Regents to reverse their short-sighted and harmful decision to partner with this wealthy corporation that is actively working to undermine our efforts to fully fund our schools and communities.

We can never have an equitable California if our public institutions are willingly going into business with wealthy corporations that spend millions of dollars opposing Prop. 13 reform and other policies designed to help the most vulnerable Californians. It’s time we all demand that the UC divest from Blackstone!