Reports

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ACCE Institute in 2024

2024 was a year of significant victory and experimentation for ACCE. We made major strides toward protecting tenants in the cities where we organize, and dipped our toes into the worlds of climate and transit justice -re-establishing ACCE as a multi-issue organization nimble enough to take on campaigns on a myriad of topics. We made progress in aligning our work to our organizing north stars, and built out our organizing capacities with stronger communications, data, and finance teams. And we lived into our values of supporting workers unions by finalizing our first ever ACCE Union collective bargaining agreement. We certainly had a lot to celebrate.

Yet, despite our progress and victories, the country faces serious threats in the coming year with promises of mass deportations, massive budget cuts, and an economy that continues to leave too many struggling to make ends meet, not to mention the climate catastrophes and deep social divisions we are already experiencing. We are at a crossroads. There is a path prioritizing the wealthy few -paved with tax cuts for the ultra-rich, scapegoating of marginalized communities, and repression- that is being laid out before us. Alternatively, there is a path that we have been dreaming up and fighting for - a path defined by respect, equity, and dignity -that redirects our governing systems and our social life towards care and community. The battle for which path will win out is afoot. In this year of impending threats, we see pivotal organizing opportunities. Protection and mutual aid will be needed - but alone they are altogether insufficient.

The moment calls for BOLD demands and even BOLDER action. At ACCE we do not intend to hide from that call. We are prepared to take on bigger and more audacious battles, move more people into action, and forge even stronger and broader ally relationships than ever before. We know power concedes nothing without a demand, so we will spend 2025 organizing impacted people to make big demands, and building power across the movement to win them because when we fight, we win!

READ THE FULL REPORT HERE!

In power and solidarity, 

Christina Livingston, Executive Director of ACCE Institute

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HELTER SHELTER: How Blackstone Contributes To and Profits From California’s Broken Housing System

Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP) and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) have published an analysis of private equity giant Blackstone’s profit-seeking practices in California as residents suffer amidst one of the nation’s worst housing crises. “Helter Shelter: How Blackstone Contributes to and Profits from California’s Broken Housing System,” examines how Blackstone has profited from rent hikes and ramped up evictions, and even depends on the continuation of the affordable housing crisis for sustained profits. According to the report, Blackstone has touted to investors multiple times how the firm’s real estate investments benefit from declining new supply of housing, a key driver of the affordable housing crisis. 

In 2021, Blackstone acquired 5,800 rental units in the San Diego area. Since then, the report shows, Blackstone has increased the rent at these properties 38% — almost double the 20% average rent increase for all apartments in the San Diego market during this period. The increase at some Blackstone-owned buildings has been especially high – up to 79%.

The report also outlines how Blackstone used over $14 million of investor capital – including from California public employee pension funds and the University of California – to lobby against regulation to limit rent increases in California.

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ACCE Institute in 2023

Wow! What a year of organizing and winning for everyday Californians. This report contains dozens of successful organizing campaigns, policy fights, and infrastructure growth, but the reality is that ACCE members won so many more victories in 2023 than can fit in this brief summary. We took meaningful steps toward our north star of winning a housing system built on the value that everyone deserves a safe and affordable place to call home. We began to organize around climate justice and pension divestment from Blackstone. We launched two new movements in Rise Up/Levantate CA and California Common Good, and we helped incubate Movement Legal (formally ACCE legal) to add to the state’s tenant movement infrastructure. Our staff and budget grew as we took on new challenges and issue areas, and we engaged in the struggle, together with allies at the local and state level, to create more alignment and capacity for our movements.

This year comes with its own challenges and opportunities that we are gearing up for. The national election gives us the chance to “campaignize” the election -putting our member’s issues and solutions front and center while exposing the money and agenda that big real estate and big oil are moving through our democratic processes. It also comes with the threat of a violent and bigoted base of anti-black, anti-immigrant, anti-lgbtq+ individuals and groups being activated as the country battles between creating a true democracy and falling into fascism. All of that while we continue to make progress on creating a housing system that works for us all, and saving the planet from climate disaster. That may sound daunting, but what we at ACCE know is that the only thing that can save us, is US. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. So, we will roll up our sleeves and keep working to construct the California, the country, and the planet we deserve.

On a personal note, 2024 marks my 20th anniversary as an organizer, which both begs the question - when did I get so old? and generates a desire to reflect on where I’ve been and where I’m headed. I can think of many successes and defeats, regrets and moments of pride, but when I put the last 20 years together, one thing that I can say for sure is that I have met the most dedicated, courageous, righteous, and special people in my life through my work at ACCE. Many of those people are ACCE members and staff, some are mentors, and some are allies and supporters. Every one of them has left a mark on me - made me wiser, more strategic, more caring, more steadfast. So, thank you all for how you have changed me, and for how you’ve changed the course of history! I’m still in this fight, in part, because of you, and I’ll keep fighting hasta la victoria.

With Love and Solidarity,

Christina Livingston, ACCE Institute Executive Director

Read the full report here.

 

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From Housing Providers to Drivers of Homelessness: How the California Apartment Association’s Wall Street Leadership Spent Nearly a Quarter Billion Dollars to Block Housing Solutions

Californians consistently identify high housing costs and addressing homelessness as two of the top issues they want to see lawmakers address. Numerous reports and studies have documented the problems and outlined consensus strategies and solutions. However, to date, state and local governments have failed to pass policies or make investments commensurate with the scale of the state’s housing needs. Why are policymakers failing to act? One of the major reasons is the powerful and deep-pocketed corporate real estate lobby led by the California Apartment Association (CAA). While the CAA often claims to represent their 13,000 members, the CAA’s agenda primarily serves their leadership who are some of the country’s largest Wall Street corporate landlords. The business model of these mega corporate landlords is predicated on increasing profits at all costs by raising rents, neglecting maintenance, and evicting frequently. Since 2017, the CAA has dramatically increased its spending to oppose or repeal critical housing justice solutions. Over the past three legislative sessions – 2017/2018; 2019/2020; and 2021/2022 (based on Secretary of State data accessed on 02/01/2023) – the CAA, with the help of its corporate real estate investor members and other toxic industries, has spent at least $233 million dollars ($233,827,386) in political contributions and lobbying. Through their spreading of cash, the CAA  has furthered its Wall Street agenda, making it even harder for all of us to find stability and opportunity while calling California home.

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Recognizing the Right to Housing: Why We Need a Human Right to Housing in California

California is at the epicenter of houselessness crisis in the United States. Over half of the nation’s unsheltered people and a quarter of all unhoused people live in California, despite the fact that California residents make up only 12% of the nation’s population. This is largely due to the state’s skyrocketing housing costs, lack of affordable housing, and stagnating wages. The burdens of California’s affordable housing shortage and resulting houselessness crisis raise grave humanitarian concerns and fall disproportionately on Black and Brown residents.

As this report demonstrates, enshrining a fundamental right to housing in the California Constitution is a necessary step to effectively address the growing housing crisis at the state level. Guaranteeing every person the right to housing provides an important government obligation and legal tool to ensure that Californians have access to affordable and adequate housing. This rights-based approach is supported by a rich body of international human rights law and will bolster California’s existing Housing First policy, based on decades of empirical evidence that houselessness is most effectively remedied by access to permanent and stable housing, with minimal requirements for entry.

Read the full report here.

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