The Briefing is a weekly analysis of housing news explained from the tenant-activist perspective.

Every now and then, people need a very important reminder about rent control…

Not long ago, a group of 32 top economists wrote a letter to the Biden Administration saying that rent control is an effective way to protect the poor and middle and working class. The economists also said that the real estate industry’s anti-rent control arguments are outdated and wrong.

It was a big deal in the rent control debate: corporate landlords, even certain reporters, have long pushed the myth that economists don’t support rent regulations.

Rent control is a tool that urgently helps hard-working people who are drowning under sky-high rents and facing homelessness. We need to use it. Rent control works! Read our article.

Greystar, the largest corporate landlord in the United States, has been making shady moves again. The company recently agreed to a whopping $24-million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission for deceptive advertising practices that also came with hidden charges. It’s not surprising.

Greystar has been a key player in the ongoing RealPage scandal — corporate landlords such as Greystar used a software program to collude and wildly inflate rents, which fueled the nationwide housing affordability crisis. The company has also spent big money to finance misinformation campaigns to kill the expansion of rent control in California.

It shows why there’s a serious need to properly regulate Big Real Estate so middle- and working-class renters are protected. Read the article and share and like our post.

Rents are too damn high not only in the United States, but also in many other countries. (Read our article “Tenants and Activists Around the World Must Band Together to Fight Corporate Landlords.”)

In Ireland, for example, things are so out of hand that a member of Irish Parliament, Seamus Healy, recently called on government to stop evictions and freeze rents due to a housing emergency.

It’s the kind of urgent approach that elected officials all over the world should take because people are facing life-altering problems when they can’t pay excessive rents. That includes ending up homeless. Read the article and share and like our post.

This is our last briefing for the year, and we’d like to point you to a group of key articles about rent control, corporate landlords, and other important housing matters that can be found in one place. Read these articles and reports, and you’ll get a deep understanding about what’s happening in California as it relates to the housing affordability and homelessness crises. Read the article.

We also recommend reading an exclusive report about the California Apartment Association, the front group for corporate landlords. This exposé covers the CAA and Big Real Estate in a way that, as far as we know, has never been done before, following numerous money trails that show how the real estate industry strongly influences policies, elections, and politicians through campaign cash. The CAA also uses corporate-landlord cash to finance misinformation campaigns to kill tenant protections. Read the exposé.

That’s it for now. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Patrick Range McDonald is a veteran investigative reporter and award-winning advocacy journalist for Housing Is A Human Right.