I recently heard from a young woman named Rosemary Serna, a single mother raising her 5-year-old daughter in Highland Park, Northeast LA. Rosemary works for a non-profit helping adults with developmental disabilities, and she’s also about to graduate with a sociology degree from Cal State LA.

The problem is, Rosemary and her daughter might no longer have a home to live in because a Silicon Valley apartment investing group, called Interstate Equities Corporation (IEC), bought her apartment complex earlier this year and immediately jacked the rent for her 1-bedroom from $900 to $1,600 a month.

A 75% increase, overnight!

This is utterly unacceptable. There should be a law against this kind of behavior, right? Well, there isn’t, not in places that don’t have rent control. In the majority of cities across our state, it is essentially the Wild West when it comes to abusive, greedy, unethical corporations like IEC doing whatever they please – including serving families a 3-day eviction notice when they can’t suddenly pay double the rent.  

I am running for California Lt. Governor to fight for Rosemary and the millions of working people like her who are falling victim to skyrocketing rents that they simply cannot afford. This was never the deal that We the People signed up for, which is why we’re finally standing up to say ENOUGH: We demand affordable housing NOW.

Our powerful renters movement will only grow until our demands are met. Here are the three things we want to see right now, which are all central platforms of my campaign:

1. Pass rent control ordinances in more California cities so greedy corporations and landlords can no longer devastate working families with soaring rent costs.

2. Vote YES this November on the Affordable Housing Act, which repeals the unfair Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act that exempts so many properties from rent control.

3. BUILD MORE AFFORDABLE HOUSING.  

I cannot stress enough how urgently we must work together to solve the housing affordability crisis in California. Real people’s lives, like Rosemary’s and her daughter’s, are being impacted every single day by an unrestrained market and our failure to rein in property owner greed. Rosemary is not alone facing impossible odds in a housing market that is rigged against her.

I am the only candidate for Lt. Governor who views this as THE PRIORITY ISSUE and is going to bat for renters and working people whose lives – and dreams – are now in jeopardy because they can’t afford a roof over their head. I will not slow down or be silenced in this fight until we achieve our demands and families can live in affordable housing again.

This movement is growing and you are a key part of it. Please stand with me and tell your neighbors and friends to vote on June 5th so we can take our demands to Sacramento and enact real change.