Housing Rights Advocates Take on Billionaire Landlord Sam Zell in Socially-Distant Protest

A coalition of tenants' rights advocates that include Housing Is A Human Right (HHR), the housing advocacy division of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) will stage a socially-distant protest calling out the predatory housing practices by Sam Zell, Co-Founder and Chairman of Equity Residential, a Chicago-based real estate investment trust (REIT).

The Billionaire landlord owns 303 properties totaling 78,280 apartments in San Francisco, Southern California, New York, and other cities. Despite owing his vast wealth to millions of tenants across the country, Zell uses the money gained from his rental properties to stop efforts to implement meaningful tenant's protections.

Zell and is one of the most powerful forces behind Big Real Estate's multi-million-dollar push to stop the Rental Affordability Act, the November ballot measure that expands rent control in California. And in 2018, Zell and Equity Residential was the fourth largest political contributor to stop Proposition 10, which also attempted to expand rent control in California.

The SOCIALLY-DISTANT PROTEST will start at 10:00 a.m. and run until 11:00 a.m. in Malibu.

"COVID-19 has only made California's housing crisis worse as millions of Californians face staggering unemployment and even further housing insecurity," said Rene Moya, Housing Is A Human Right and Rental Affordability Act Campaign Director. "Even amid this ongoing crisis, predatory landlords like Sam Zell continue to fight against every effort to protect renters."

The housing rights activists hope to send a clear message to Zell: stop putting profits over people.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the parent non-profit of Housing Is A Human Right and Healthy Housing Foundation, has long addressed public health emergencies -- from the AIDS epidemic to the Ebola crisis to California's homeless crisis. AHF will do everything it can to help the vulnerable during this difficult time.