CRC co-sponsored AB 1199 imposes excise tax and accountability on large corporate landlords to increase opportunity for working class
SACRAMENTO, Calif — Assemblymember Mike A. Gipson (D-Carson) introduces Assembly Bill (AB) 1199, which seeks to create opportunities for first-time homebuyers and working families to own homes and build generational wealth. Specifically, this bill corrects the excessive practice of corporations buying up foreclosed or under-market value homes in order to make profits from increasingly inflated rents by creating a disincentive for hoarding homes as rental property.
For years, most single-family homes in California were rented directly by their owners or small real-estate companies. Today, a large and growing share of single-family rental homes are owned and managed by large corporations, real-estate firms, and financial institutions. Across the U.S., 12 million single-family homes and 35 percent of all rental housing are owned by these institutions.
“As we continue to fight through this pandemic, there is no greater responsibility than to advance opportunities for our working-class and to hold investors accountable,” said Assemblymember Gipson. “The underproduction of units has turned the state’s housing market into a lucrative business and are robbing Californians’ shot at living the American Dream.”
“This bill hits home for me,” said Lenea Maibaum, an organizer at Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco and a tenant under one of California’s largest multifamily landlords, Veritas Investments. “As huge, corporate landlords get richer during the pandemic, they should also be paying their fair share. And when tenants need to hold a huge corporation accountable, this bill will help them do that.” Of California’s 10 million residential properties, over half a million are owned by corporations, and the most conservative estimate puts nearly 200,000 properties are owned by corporations that own more than 10 residential properties. This has allowed corporate landlords to corner the housing market, thereby limiting the ability of many long-term renters seeking to build equity through homeownership.
“Low income and Black, Indigenous, and other people of color have been priced out of and excluded from the housing market for too long,” said Jyotswaroop Kaur Bawa, Organizing and Campaigns Director for the California Reinvestment Coalition. “The extractive profit-taking approach we’ve prioritized in California has made it impossible for these communities to stay in their homes, especially in the face of mass evictions and an ongoing pandemic. We need to create statewide rules that center people-driven investment, not the needs of large corporations.”
“As an organization of low-income Californians, our members see the negative impacts of bad corporate landlords every day, with the eviction of renters and crowding out of first-time homebuyers,” said Sasha Graham, President of the ACCE Action Board of Directors. “We’re increasingly facing Wall Street Landlords, not mom-and-pops, who are pushing out our community and driving up the cost of housing for all of us. We deserve to know who owns our homes & we need accountability for our most impacted communities.”
In addition, this bill seeks to correct the practice of corporations buying multiple homes by imposing an excise tax on large corporations that own and rent out 10 or more properties in California to disincentivize hoarding single-family homes and amassing huge portfolios of rental properties. Tax revenue from this bill could generate over $1 billion annually. In addition to curtailing the growing practice, the bill creates a fund to support first-time homebuyer education, down payment assistance programs and rental assistance for low-income families.
Nearly 150 organizations in support of AB 1199:
AAPIs For Civic Empowerment – Education Fund
Affordable Housing Advocates
Affordable Housing Alliance
Affordable Housing Network of Santa Clara County
American Federation of Teachers Local 2121(City College of San Francisco Faculty Union)
AIDS Legal Referral Panel
Alameda County Democratic Central Committee
Alliance for Community Transit – Los Angeles
Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE)—SPONSOR
American Indian Movement So Cal
Anti-Eviction Mapping Project
Asian Americans Advancing Justice – California
Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN)
Black Arts Movement Business District (BAM BD) CDC
Bay Area Organization of Black Owned Businesses (BAOBOB)
Bend the Arc
Berkeley Tenants Union
Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust
Burbank Tenants’ Rights Committee
CADEM Renters’ Caucus
California Capital Financial Development Corporation
California Coalition for Rural Housing
California Community Land Trust Network
California Dream Alliance
California Democratic Council
California Faculty Association – San Francisco State University
California Immigrant Policy Center
California Reinvestment Coalition—SPONSOR
Californians For Economic Justice
Capital Impact Partners
Causa Justa :: Just Cause
CDC Small Business Finance
Center for LGBTQ Economic Advancement & Research
Central Valley Realtist Board of NAREB
Château Shatto
Chinese Progressive Association
City Heights Community Development Corporation
Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE)
Coachella Valley Housing Corporation
Coalition for Economic Survival (CES)
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA)
Community Financial Resources
Community Housing Opportunity Corporation
Congregations Organized for Prophetic Engagement, COPE
Consumer Action
Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety
Courage California
Crenshaw Subway Coalition
East Bay Housing Organizations
East Los Angeles Community Corporation
East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice
EPACANDO
Esperanza Community Housing Corporation
Eviction Defense Collaborative
Eviction Defense Network
Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California
Fair Housing Council of the San Fernando Valley
First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles
Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce
The Greenlining Institute
Haven Neighborhood Services
The Hayward Collective
Homeownership SF
Housing and Economic Rights Advocates
Housing Equality & Advocacy Resource Team (HEART LA)
Housing Long Beach
Housing Rights Center
Housing Rights Committee San Francisco—SPONSOR
HPP Cares Community Development Corporation
Inclusive Action for the City
Inland Empire Association of Realists
Inner City Law Center
Inquilinos Unidos
Jobs With Justice San Francisco
KIWA (Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance)
Koreatown Youth & Community Center
LA Forward
Law Foundation of Silicon Valley
Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of San Francisco
LIFT Economy
Main Street Alliance
Maternal and Child Health Access
Malonga Arts Residents Association
Me Too Survivors’ March International
Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA)
Multicultural Real Estate Alliance for Urban Change
Mutual Housing California
NAACP Stockton Branch
National CAPACD- National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development
National Council of Jewish Women Los Angeles
National Harm Reduction Coalition
National Housing Law Project
National Union of Healthcare Workers
Neighborhood Housing Services Los Angeles—SPONSOR
New Economics for Women
North Bay Tenants Project/ Sonoma County Tenants Union
Northern California Land Trust
Neighborhood Partnership Housing Services, Inc.
Oakland Community Land Trust
One Redwood City
Pasadena Tenants Union
Peace and Freedom Party
Public Counsel
The Public Interest Law Project
PUENTE Learning Center
R&N Strategies
Reinvent South Stockton Coalition
Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center
Renewed Hope Housing Advocates
Rent and Mortgage Relief SLO County
RISE Coalition
Sacred Heart Community Service of San Jose
Sacramento Housing Alliance
Sacramento Tenants Union
SAJE (Strategic Actions for a Just Economy)
San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition
San Francisco Berniecrats
San Francisco Community Land Trust
San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee
SEIU California
Seminary of the Street
Senior and Disability Action
Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Bay Area
Silicon Valley Rising Action
Social Justice Learning Institute
South Sacramento Seniors for Systemic Equality
Stonewall Democratic Club
Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC)
TechEquity Collaborative
Tenants Together
Tenderloin Housing Clinic
Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC)
The People’s Resource Center
The Sidewalk Project
TRUST South LA
Unite A Nation
United Parents and Students
The Unity Council
University Lutheran Chapel
Unidos US
Urban Habitat
Urban Possibilities
Uxo Architects
Ventura County Community Development Corporation
Volunteers of America
Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club
Working Partnerships USA