Jackie Safier, the billionaire CEO of Prometheus Real Estate Group, only wants to make more millions, no matter who gets hurt. Charging top-dollar rents, she contributes to California’s housing affordability crisis. Like other corporate landlords, she puts profits over people.
Prometheus is the largest private owner of apartments in the Bay Area. In addition to apartment buildings in the Pacific Northwest, the company’s holdings include 55 properties and 13,000 residential units. Prometheus’ studios and one-bedroom apartments range from a whopping $2,000 to $3,700 per month. One tenant described Safier and her company as “a bunch of inconsiderate, money hungry people.”
How has Safier spent her millions by rent-gouging?
While California faces a severe housing affordability crisis, Prometheus shelled out $2,185,0500 to defeat Proposition 10 in 2018, which would have expanded rent control. Safier wanted to maintain the status quo: seniors sleeping in their cars, teachers unable to afford housing in the communities that they serve, families facing homelessness.
Unsurprisingly, Prometheus contributed major campaign cash to stop a 2016 rent control measure in Mountain View, California, where rents were skyrocketing and landlords were grabbing for even bigger profits.
“Hard working families are losing their homes,” pro-rent control supporters stated. “Valued teachers, nurses, and tech employees are leaving Mountain View as rents become unaffordable.”
Safier didn’t care.
During the 2016 presidential election, the billionaire contributed $233,800 to the Republican National Committee and $100,000 to Republican committees in key battleground states. Safier’s riches helped Donald Trump win the White House.
Safier and other corporate landlords will do anything to make more money, disregarding the hard-working people they hurt. Corporate greed, in fact, has fueled California’s housing affordability and homeless crises — the worst in the nation.
It’s why we need rent control, which sensibly limits the amount a landlord can raise the rent and reins in landlord greed. Top experts at USC, UCLA, UC Berkeley, and Columbia University agree that rent control will stabilize the housing affordability crisis — and keep people in their homes.
But Safier is already spending big bucks to oppose the Rental Affordability Act, the November 2020 statewide ballot measure that seeks to expand rent control in California. It’s time to fight back.
(After the above video was first released, Safier contributed additional monies to stop Prop 10 in 2018.)