Rents are down slightly from this point last year, according to Rent.com, but that doesn't mean they're affordable.

Average rent for a studio apartment in San Diego is more than $2,300. For a two bedroom the average raises to $3,700.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors is trying to tackle the issue with a new initiative looking at the impact private equity is having on housing costs.

The board approved a series of actions at a meeting July 16. The county wants to know exactly how many condos, townhouses and single-family homes are owned by commercial entities and in what part of the county they're in.

It also looks at whether there's a legal remedy — litigation — to pursue against corporate landlords in response to allegations of price-fixing, price-gouging and tenant harassment.

Private equity firm Blackstone is the target of much of this critique. The firm acquired about 5,600 local rental units in 2021 and, according to tenant union the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, has raised rents significantly since.

ANTIOCH, California - On my way to Antioch for a Juneteenth celebration, I unexpectedly ran into my oldest sister, who was sitting in the same Amtrak car. She was headed to the Bay Area from Fresno to celebrate the holiday with her grandchildren, and while chatting, I began singing happy birthday to her. Soon, other travelers joyfully joined in to sing for her. 

These are the unique experiences that I’ve been able to have as a Black elder when I take the Amtrak train to and from the Pittsburg/Antioch Amtrak station. I know when I hop on the train, I can regularly run into family, friends and community members as they make their way to work, school or back home to their families.

Unfortunately, this kind of freedom is under threat, and tens of thousands are set to lose accessibility to this vital service.

LOS ANGELES, California - In an effort to stem the flow of people falling into homelessness, tenants who live in Los Angeles County’s unincorporated communities will get free legal representation to fight evictions — part of an ordinance approved by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, July 16.

In a unanimous vote, the board deemed it a right for residents facing evictions to be given legal representation, and that help will be dependent on income levels. The supervisors see the action as codifying another tool for battling homelessness by preventing more people from losing their homes and facing survival on the streets.

“We’ve heard from experts that people are falling into homelessness faster than we can get people off the streets and into housing,” said Fourth District Supervisor Janice Hahn. She said the program will level the playing field and give renters a better chance to stay housed. “Many cannot afford legal representation and their landlords often can.”

SAN DIEGO, California - The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 3-1 Tuesday in favor of a proposal that will address corporate "bad actors" who purchase homes and, in the words of the proposal, contribute to an already difficult affordable-housing situation.

Vice Chair Terra Lawson-Remer said her sponsored policy aims "to protect communities from illegal business practices, and safeguard housing options for first-time homebuyers and working families."

Lawson-Remer said private equity giants and large corporations "are increasingly buying up the nation's scarce supply of homes, including in the San Diego region," driving up prices for their own profit and making the housing affordability crisis worse.

"I can't stress it enough, but as tenants, we are getting displaced due to corporate greed," said Patricia Mendoza, of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment. "Our communities are not for sale."

CALIFORNIA - En California, los propietarios deben tener una razón válida o una causa justa para desalojar a un inquilino, pero los expertos indican que, desde la pandemia del COVID-19, el número de casos de desalojos ha ido en aumento.

"Lo que hemos visto es que depende dónde vive el inquilino, porque tenía distintas protecciones durante la pandemia, y el resultado es que estamos viendo una diferencia en dónde hay más desalojos", indicó Leah Simon-Weisberg, vocera de la Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment.

Según estadísticas de las cortes en California, de los 58 condados que tiene el estado, 28 registraron el número más alto de desalojos de los últimos cinco años.

SAN DIEGO, California - 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.

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."

SAN DIEGO, California - You can’t sleep here, you can’t sit over there, you can’t eat in that spot, panhandling isn’t allowed in this area — there have been a growing number of rules and policies dictating what kinds of “acts of living” people can do in public spaces and the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled against sleeping in public.

In Grants Pass v. Oregon, the court found that the city’s ordinance against sleeping or camping on public property did not qualify as “cruel and unusual punishment” under the Eighth Amendment. For people experiencing homelessness, advocacy groups, and the three dissenting justices, it was a missed opportunity to focus on responses that uphold the humanity and dignity of America’s homeless population. Nationally, more than 650,000 people were experiencing homelessness in 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; in the San Diego region, the 2024 point-in-time survey found 10,605 people locally were experiencing homelessness, according to the Regional Task Force on Homelessness San Diego.

Yesenia Miranda Meza is a member of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), a planning commissioner for the City of Pomona, and a co-founder and board member for Pomona United for Stable Housing (PUSH), who was assisted by ACCE in 2017 when she found herself facing a significant rent increase that she couldn’t afford.

Eric Tars is the senior policy director at the National Homelessness Law Center, whose father was born into and grew up in refugee camps during World War II, motivating his work and his desire that “I wouldn’t want anything less for anyone than I would have wanted for my own father.” Miranda Meza and Tars each took some time to discuss their thoughts about this ruling and their experience with the most effective responses to homelessness. (These interviews have been edited for length and clarity. )