SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The coronavirus pandemic has caused devastating economic consequences for millions of people and heightened the state’s housing affordability and homelessness crisis. As millions of Californians face severe housing insecurity, advocates from Housing Is A Human Right (HHR), the housing advocacy division of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), has held several socially distant car protests calling out corporate landlords and other bad actors who have used the pandemic to prey on vulnerable renters throughout the state. The housing rights advocates will stage another protest, this time to take on billionaire landlord Jackie Safier.
Safier and Prometheus have been longtime behemoth opponents of renter protections, giving a total of $935,497 to campaign committees that oppose the Rental Affordability Act - a proposed ballot initiative that would allow cities and counties to expand rent control in California.
Even now, during the global coronavirus pandemic that has caused a public health and economic catastrophe, leaving millions of California residents facing further housing insecurity, Safier has donated over 500 thousand dollars to stop rent control. Safier wants to maintain the status quo, a California where seniors sleep in their cars, hard-working citizens are priced out of their communities, and there are very limited tenant protections. For her, it's good business.
The PARKED CAR PROTEST will start at 3:00 p.m. and runs until 5:00 p.m. at 2910 Pacific Ave in San Francisco
WHAT: |
HOUSING RIGHTS PROTEST: housing and health care advocates demand that eviction attorney Dennis Block stop his shameful ways just to turn a profit off the pandemic |
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WHEN: |
Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. |
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WHERE: |
2910 Pacific Ave, San Francisco |
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B-ROLL: |
Advocates will circle the location in vehicles while honking and projecting their message on banners and car decals |
“The level of greed on display by corporate landlords like Safier comes as no surprise. After all, Safier and Prometheus shelled more than 2 million dollars to defeat Proposition 10 in 2018, which would have expanded rent control. And they contributed significant campaign donations to stop a 2016 rent control measure in Mountain View, California,” said Housing Is A Human Right Director René Christian Moya. “But to support efforts to stop renter protections during a pandemic that has affected people from all walks of life is lower than one expected from the likes of Jackie Safier.”
The housing rights activists hope to send a message to Safier and those who share her values: you can't put 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.
