Housing Is A Human Right applauds California State Sen. and Appropriations Committee Chair Anthony Portantino for shelving SB 50, a harmful, trickle-down housing bill that would fuel gentrification and displacement in California. We need urgent, community-based solutions that address the housing affordability crisis. SB 50 is not that bill.
“SB 50 pushes luxury housing for a housing affordability crisis,” says Housing Is A Human Right Director René Christian Moya. “It will make the real estate industry billions, but will worsen gentrification and displacement throughout the state. Housing Is A Human Right will continue to fight the bill and ensure that it does not pass in 2020.”
SB 50 will not be voted on this year, but state legislators will probably take it up again in early 2020. The bill was introduced by State Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco. He has longtime financial ties to the real estate industry.
So far, for his 2016 and 2020 state senate campaigns, Wiener has hauled in more than $725,000 from developers, landlords, architects, lobbying firms, and other real estate insiders, according to state records. Housing Is A Human Right released the investigative report, “Selling Out California: Scott Wiener’s Money Ties to Big Real Estate.” SB 50 would generate billions in revenue for Wiener’s political patrons in the real estate industry.
Housing Is A Human Right is the housing advocacy division of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. HHR and AHF have been among the leading organizations in fighting SB 50, going back to when the bill was first announced in December 2019. HHR and AHF advance a community-based housing strategy to help the most vulnerable called the “3 Ps”: protect tenants, preserve communities, and produce housing.
“Stopping SB 50 is just the beginning of the battle,” says AHF President and Co-Founder Michael Weinstein. “Wiener will be back with this bad legislation next year. We urgently need rent relief, construction of truly affordable housing, and anti-gentrification protections.”
HHR and AHF have recently launched the Rental Affordability Act, aiming to place the initiative on the 2020 statewide ballot. Protecting middle- and working-class tenants, the Rental Affordability Act will bring much-needed rent control to California during the housing affordability crisis.