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.

The Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP) and Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) have released a new report that documents rent hikes and increased evictions by the private equity firm The Blackstone Group. Blackstone now owns and manages over 300,000 units of rental housing in the U.S., making it the largest landlord in the U.S.

In 2021, Blackstone bought 5,600 housing units in San Diego County where rents had been affordable to lower income tenants. As units in San Diego County become vacant, Blackstone has raised rents in some units 43% higher than it was just two years ago. 

Blackstone also has a history of spending millions of dollars to oppose rent control in California. The company gave over $7 million in 2018 and more than $7 million in 2020 to fight against the ballot initiatives. 

Blackstone founder and CEO Stephen Schwartzman received $1.3 billion in compensation last year. 

Click here to read the full report.

2022 was a year full of gains for ACCE! We deepened our organizing programs and experiments, we built out our training programs and critical discussions about the systems and actors we are up against, we sharpened our understanding of what we are called to do, we expanded our base and our staff team, and we WON A LOT for our people.

Check out our full 2022 report to see read all the great work we did!

No matter which way we look at it, 2021 was a big year that marked big changes for our country and for ACCE Institute. We spent the year fighting and winning major victories for California’s tenants, homeowners, and undocumented residents. From winning full rent forgiveness to keeping thousands of families in their homes through local and state tenant protections, we worked hard to realize our vision for justice in California.

Check out our full report to see read all the great work we did!

In the 2020 election, 59.6% of voters rejected Proposition 21, a ballot measure that would have expanded municipalities’ right to enact rent control. While such a devastating loss might lead one to believe that Californians oppose rent-control, the No campaigns' rhetoric makes it clear that nothing could be further from the truth.

To defeat Proposition 21, the No campaigns engaged in a ruthless disinformation campaign to deceive California voters on Proposition 21’s substance. This report briefly looks at who was behind this unethical campaign of disinformation. It then looks at the No campaigns rhetoric, which, while frustratingly effective, highlights the tenant movement’s progress in California. The No campaigns’ rhetoric proves that Californians want rent control, eviction protections, more affordable housing, racial justice and support for senior citizens, veterans, and the unhoused.