BLACKSTONE COMES TO COLLECT: How America’s Largest Landlord and Wall Street’s Highest Paid CEO Are Jacking Up Rents and Ramping Up Evictions

The report details how Blackstone, the largest landlord in the U.S., has aggressively expanded its housing portfolio by adding over 200,000 units in two years. It highlights a shift from a voluntary eviction moratorium to a wave of eviction filings in late 2022, often for minimal rent arrears. The document argues that Blackstone leverages legal loopholes in California to charge new tenants significantly higher rents than previous residents and has spent millions of dollars to defeat rent control measures. It also notes that a majority of Blackstone's properties are located in neighborhoods with high populations of people of color.

• Blackstone is the largest landlord in the United States, owning and managing more than 300,000 rental housing units.
• Between 2021 and 2022, Blackstone expanded its residential portfolio by over 200,000 units through several large acquisitions, including American Campus Communities for $12.8 billion and Home Partners of America for $6 billion.
• After maintaining a voluntary eviction moratorium during the pandemic, Blackstone began filing evictions in late 2022, including over 350 filings in Florida between August and November 2022 and cases where tenants owed only one month's rent.
• In San Diego, Blackstone has listed units for new tenants at rates significantly higher than previous averages to bypass California's 10% annual rent hike cap for existing tenants; for example, at Fashion Hills, 1-bedroom units were listed at $2,354/mo, 43% higher than the September 2021 average.
• A review of 395 Blackstone properties indicates a concentration in minority neighborhoods, with the average property located in an area where people of color make up 58% of residents.
• Blackstone has spent millions of dollars to oppose rent control in California, including $6.1 million in 2018 and $7 million in 2020 via the California Business Roundtable Issues PAC to stop Proposition 21.

APA

Ash, J. (2023). BLACKSTONE COMES TO COLLECT: How America’s Largest Landlord and Wall Street’s Highest Paid CEO Are Jacking Up Rents and Ramping Up Evictions. Private Equity Stakeholder Project. https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/PESP_Report_Blackstone_March2023_v4.pdf

Chicago

Ash, Jordan. BLACKSTONE COMES TO COLLECT: How America’s Largest Landlord and Wall Street’s Highest Paid CEO Are Jacking Up Rents and Ramping Up Evictions. Private Equity Stakeholder Project, 2023. https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/PESP_Report_Blackstone_March2023_v4.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Ash |first1=Jordan |title=BLACKSTONE COMES TO COLLECT: How America’s Largest Landlord and Wall Street’s Highest Paid CEO Are Jacking Up Rents and Ramping Up Evictions |publisher=Private Equity Stakeholder Project |date=March 2023 |url=https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/PESP_Report_Blackstone_March2023_v4.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ash2023blackstone, author = {Ash, Jordan}, title = {{BLACKSTONE COMES TO COLLECT: How America’s Largest Landlord and Wall Street’s Highest Paid CEO Are Jacking Up Rents and Ramping Up Evictions}}, institution = {Private Equity Stakeholder Project}, year = {2023}, month = mar, url = {https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/PESP_Report_Blackstone_March2023_v4.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }