California is mired in a housing-affordability crisis — the worst in the nation. Teachers can’t live in the communities that they serve. Seniors sleep in their cars. Families face homelessness because they can’t pay sky-high rents. Experts and activists agree that help is needed immediately. In 2018, Michael Hayde laid out millions to keep the status quo.
Hayde is the CEO and chairman of Western National Group. Headquartered in Irvine, California, it manages more than 150 apartment communities throughout California and Arizona. Hayde became a multi-millionaire by operating properties that charge unfair, excessive rents. He amassed a fortune, in other words, on the backs of working people.
Hayde didn’t want that to change. In 2018, he contributed a whopping $4.7 million to defeat Proposition 10, the California ballot measure that sought to expand rent control. Housing crisis or not, the wealthy CEO didn’t want anyone messing with his millions.
Hayde will undoubtedly shell out more millions to stop the Rental Affordability Act, the November 2020 ballot measure that expands rent control in California.
That profits-over-people mindset isn’t surprising. Hayde contributed $12,500 to Donald Trump’s presidential run. Like Trump, Hayde looks out for himself before anyone else.
Hayde, in fact, joined a long list of corporate landlords who helped Trump win the White House and contributed millions to oppose Prop 10. Trump confidante and billionaire landlord Stephen Schwarzman shelled out $7.4 million to stop Prop 10; Trump’s close friend and billionaire landlord Geoffrey Palmer contributed $2 million; and Trump supporter and multi-millionaire landlord Jackie Safier has laid out $2.1 million.
These billionaires and multi-millionaires will do anything to make more money, disregarding the hard-working people that they hurt. Corporate greed, in fact, has helped cause California’s housing-affordability and homeless crises, impacting millions of people up and down the state.
But there is a solution: the Rental Affordability Act.
The statewide ballot measure puts reasonable limits on unfair, excessive rents — and checks corporate landlord greed. It returns power to us, and guarantees that landlords will make a fair rate of return.
(After this video were first released, Hayde contributed more monies to oppose Prop 10.)