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HOUSING WATCH - UC Berkeley Professor Ken Rosen has a lot to answer for. In a new TV ad paid by the California Apartment Association and corporate landlords, Rosen tries to come off as an independent voice, explaining why voters should not support Proposition 33. In reality, Rosen has long been connected to the most influential real estate executives in California. In fact, they’ve funded his think tank at UC Berkeley for more than 30 years — and many of them have spent millions to kill pro-rent control ballot measures. But the professor isn’t transparent about any of those hard facts. Why is Ken Rosen trying to deceive California voters?
Prop 33 is a November ballot measure that aims to end statewide rent control restrictions and allow cities to expand rent regulations. A broad coalition of housing justice groups, labor unions, social justice organizations, and civic leaders support Prop 33, including the California Democratic Party, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, and labor and civil rights icon Dolores Huerta. Yes on Prop 33 is sponsored by AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the parent division of Housing Is A Human Right.
The leading No on Prop 33 committee is sponsored by the California Apartment Association, the powerful lobbying organization for many of the largest corporate landlords in the country. Corporate landlords actually use a sneaky shell game to fund the No on Prop 33 campaign – they first contribute to the California Apartment Association Issues Committee, and then the California Apartment Association discreetly moves that campaign cash to No on Prop 33. It’s just one example of the CAA and corporate landlords trying to deceive voters.
Now there’s Ken Rosen (pictured above). In 2018, Rosen tried to come off as an independent voice, telling voters why they should vote “no” on Prop 10 – that statewide measure also tried to end rent control restrictions in California. Rosen, though, never came clean with voters about his long and deep financial connections to the state’s most powerful real estate executives, who wanted to kill Prop 10.
But, in 2018, Housing Is A Human Right exposed Ken Rosen’s ties to Big Real Estate, which has funded his think tank, UC Berkeley Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics, for decades. The center’s website even offered a long, four-page list of all the real estate executives that paid dues to be members of Rosen’s policy advisory board. Those dues financed the Fisher Center – a key motive for Rosen to do anything for his patrons in Big Real Estate.
“For over 30 years,” the think tank’s website states, “the Center has relied on its Policy Advisory Board of about 230 members for financial support to grow and sustain its education, research, and outreach programs.”
Most importantly, many of the Fisher Center’s policy advisory board members, in 2018, were also top executives at real estate companies that were spending millions to kill Prop 10. Those corporate landlords included Blackstone Group, Essex Property Trust, AvalonBay Communities, UDR, Sares-Regis Group, Prime Administration, and Prometheus Real Estate Group. Ken Rosen never mentioned that.
Curiously, in 2024, the Fisher Center’s website doesn’t list the dozens of real estate executives that continue to deliver cash to Rosen’s think tank. Why?
Ken Rosen carries over that non-transparency to his recent TV ad sponsored by the California Apartment Association. He doesn’t once tell Californians that the Fisher Center is funded by Big Real Estate or that his policy advisory board members want to kill Prop 33. Instead, he tries to come off as an independent voice who’s merely talking common sense. That’s hardly the case. He even mentions a Stanford University study that’s riddled with flaws, including the fact that the researchers controversially released three different versions, changing the mathematical models each time so rent control would look worse.
By the way, Tim McQuade, one of the researchers for that seriously flawed study, is now a faculty member at the Fisher Center.
The whole thing is not surprising. Corporate landlords and the California Apartment Association have misled voters for years, shelling out tens of millions to carry out massive misinformation campaigns to stop Prop 10, in 2018, and Prop 21, in 2020. Ken Rosen’s ad is just the latest example of Big Real Estate trying to trick and confuse voters.
But Californians have a choice. They can stand with greedy corporate landlords who will say and do anything to make more billions off the backs of hard-working tenants. Or they can stand with the activists, advocacy groups, and civic leaders that are trying to stop corporate landlord greed and help solve the housing affordability and homelessness crises. For many people, the decision is simple: vote “yes” on Prop 33.
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(Patrick Range McDonald, author and journalist, Best Activism Journalism: Los Angeles Press Club, Journalist of the Year: Los Angeles Press Club, Public Service Award: Association of Alternative Newsmedia, advocacy journalist for Housing is a Human Right, and a contributor to CityWatch.)
