SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer said she will ask her colleagues on Tuesday to sue Blackstone, a New York real estate firm she alleges has engaged in tenant harassment, price fixing and gouging.
The Democrat, who is up for reelection in November, said her proposal also would explore local ordinances to protect renters and homeowners from rising costs.
Lawson-Remer claims that starting in 2021, Blackstone has acquired 66 buildings in San Diego, totaling approximately 5,600 units. Since then, she claim some rents have surged 200%.
The supervisor alleges Blackstone has contributed to the rising housing costs in San Diego, where the median home price is around $1 million and rents can range from approaching $2,000 to more than $3,000.
Lawson-Remer joined about three dozen people and ACCE Institute, a community group, on Monday to picket a Blackstone property in Pacific Beach.
One of those protesters was Celeste Johnson.
"These big investment companies like Blackstone. They don't care about us. They don't care about our communities," Johnson said. "All they care about is their million-dollar investors."
Johnson said she works two jobs to pay the $1,700 rent in El Cajon for a two-bedroom apartment owned by Blackstone.
She said she was late in paying her rent in May, but was able to come up with the money. However, she said she can't pay the roughly $1,100 eviction fee to keep her place.
Blackstone did not respond to questions about Johnson or whether it was imposing a large eviction fee.
But, the company told ABC 10News that the protesters were cherry picking data.
Blackstone said the average rents at its San Diego communities are 20% below market rate, and it has invested about $100 million to improve the living conditions at its properties.
In addition, Blackstone said it has already completed more than 44,000 repairs that previously were unaddressed.
"We hold ourselves and our operators to the highest standard of care. During the pandemic, Blackstone recognized that many were experiencing extreme hardship," the company said in a statement. "We believe we are the only major landlord in the U.S. that did not evict a single tenant for non-payment during those 2-plus year."
