Episode Summary:

Podcast: Green & Red: Podcasts for Scrappy Radicals
Episode: How Corporate Landlord Blackstone Perpetuates the Housing Crisis w/ Jordan Ash of PESP (G&R 411)
Date: August 21, 2025
Hosts: Scott Parkin (Bob Buzzanco away)
Guest: Jordan Ash, Housing Director at the Private Equity Stakeholder Project

Overview

This episode dives deep into how Blackstone—the world’s largest private equity firm—has come to control vast swaths of American residential real estate and what that means for tenants, housing affordability, and inequality in the U.S. Host Scott Parkin interviews Jordan Ash, whose watchdog work exposes the mechanisms and impacts of corporate landlords, with stories and insights about rent spikes, evictions, and the synergy between private equity and political power.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Rise and Expansion of Blackstone in Housing

• Post-2008 Strategy: Blackstone capitalized on the foreclosure crisis after 2008, rapidly buying up foreclosed homes at low prices. Initially, their approach was to buy and rent out these homes, creating a new market for single-family rentals.

  • "After the housing crisis and foreclosure... Blackstone... swept in and starting about 2012, they started buying up single family homes that had been foreclosed on." – Jordan (02:12)

• Market Domination: Blackstone currently owns over 230,000 apartment units in the U.S.—more than any other landlord—and over 300,000 rental units including student and affordable housing, mobile home parks, and even extended stay hotels.

• Strategic Shifts: After cashing out of single-family homes in 2019, Blackstone re-entered the market around 2020, diversifying and growing its rental empire to become the largest landlord in the country.

2. Link to the Housing Crisis

• Corporate Landlords Drive Up Rents: Corporate landlords like Blackstone raise rents, add fees, and cut maintenance to maximize profits—not just recouping rent, but increasing asset values for future resale.

  • "Their business model is to increase rents in order to... make the property more profitable in order to sell it." – Jordan (05:04)

• Market Manipulation Through Technology: Firms use algorithmic pricing software like RealPage to coordinate rents—labelled “collusion done by an algorithm”—making it possible for landlords to charge more and pushing market rates up, even for small landlords.

  • "Landlords are, rather than talking to each other and sharing rent information, they submit their rent info to a central hub... their goal... is that they have identified that... landlords can charge more rent than they would have otherwise." – Jordan (06:37)

3. Sunbelt Focus and Racial/Economic Inequality

• Where Blackstone Buys: Concentration in Sunbelt states—Atlanta, Charlotte, etc.—due to population growth and weak tenant protections makes these areas very profitable. California remains lucrative due to high demand, despite stronger tenant protections.

  • "The conditions are very favorable to landlords." – Jordan (10:38)

• Racial Consequences: Blackstone and similar entities buy up “starter homes” in communities of color, driving the racial wealth gap by preventing homeownership and upward mobility.

  • "They're basically kind of preventing families from being able to... build wealth. There's a huge racial wealth gap in the country... this really furthers that even more." – Jordan (29:30)

4. Eviction and Tenant Exploitation

• Mechanisms of Displacement: Aggressive evictions, hidden fees, rent hikes beyond legal caps on new tenants, and strategic neglect of properties to pressure tenants out. The result: tenants end up in extended stay hotels, also often owned by Blackstone.

  • "Blackstone being very quick to evict them, even if the tenant has said that, they can get caught up... being very aggressive to get that tenant out." – Jordan (13:40)

  • "It's a little bit of a war of attrition on a tenant." – Scott (14:30)

• Anecdotes: Naturally occurring affordable housing is disappearing; tenants in San Diego saw rent increases of up to 100% after Blackstone bought their buildings.

5. Political Connections and Power

• CEO Steve Schwarzman: Billionaire, major Trump supporter, previously chairing Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum; symbolic of the power and influence Blackstone wields.

  • "I think it approached a billion dollars one of the recent years. And it really is... horrible to kind of see the various ways that he's kind of making that money." – Jordan (17:00)

• Bipartisan Ties: Despite Trump's connections, Blackstone also employs powerful Democrats’ relatives (e.g., Chuck Schumer's son-in-law), highlighting the bipartisan entanglement of finance and politics.

  • "It kind of speaks to the sort of like corruption in our political system that we have the Trump supporter as CEO, but then also he's hiring the son in law of the leader of... the Democrats in the Senate." – Scott (18:43)

6. Regulatory Gaps and Lack of Transparency

• Private Equity’s Cloak: Compared to publicly traded companies, private equity operates out of public view, with fewer disclosure requirements, making it harder to track or regulate their impacts.

  • "With private equity, it's all just kind of... done... in the dark. We don't have that information. We kind of don't know what they're doing." – Jordan (21:50)

• Legal Pushback: Department of Justice and state attorneys general are suing RealPage and several top landlords—including Blackstone—for price fixing and collusion, with some bipartisan support.

  • "Department of Justice... are continuing that. They have, you know, been responding to RealPage's motions to dismiss..." – Jordan (26:17)

7. Tenant Organizing and Resistance

• Tenant Movement: Recent years have seen a robust resurgence of tenant unions, organizing at local and national levels, focusing on rent control, just-cause eviction, right to counsel, and tenant protections.

  • "There is a very robust tenant union movement right now that, you know, starting kind of spurred on by the pandemic...and there's also a really strong movement in terms of policies, particularly in terms of... rent control..." – Jordan (23:23)

• Effectiveness: Most successes are at local levels (e.g., California, New York). Statewide/federal reform is limited, but organizing continues to grow.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Blackstone’s business model:
  "The private equity business model is... [buy] not because it’s profitable right now, but because they think that it can be even more profitable... the way that they do that... is by increasing rent, adding fees... and then reducing expenses by neglecting maintenance and repairs." – Jordan (04:45)

• On technology and rent hikes:
  "It’s basically collusion done by an algorithm... landlords... submit their rent information to a central hub... [which] shoots it back out... and tells them how much they should charge." – Jordan (06:50)

• On CEO Schwarzman’s profits:
  "I think it approached a billion dollars one of the recent years. And it really is... horrible to kind of see the various ways that he's kind of making that money." – Jordan (17:05)

• On political entanglements:
  "It kind of speaks to the sort of like corruption in our political system... we have the Trump supporter as CEO, but then also he's hiring the son in law of the leader of... the Democrats in the Senate." – Scott (18:43)

• On inequality and systemic impacts:
  "They are basically kind of preventing families from being able to... have benefits of homeownership and stability, but actually being able to build wealth. There's a huge racial wealth gap." – Jordan (29:30)

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Topic/Quote | |------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:12 | Origins of Blackstone’s housing acquisition strategy | | 04:45 | How Blackstone’s rent and eviction strategies drive the housing crisis | | 06:37 | RealPage software and algorithmic price collusion | | 10:08 | Why the Sunbelt is targeted, and effects in California | | 12:15 | Story of aggressive evictions in San Diego | | 17:00 | Steve Schwarzman’s pay and controversial business practices | | 18:43 | Political connections: Trump, Schumer, and Blackstone’s bipartisan reach | | 23:23 | Rise of tenant unions and organizing successes | | 26:17 | DOJ and state AGs action against RealPage and Blackstone | | 29:30 | The deepening racial wealth gap from corporate housing control |

Takeaways

• Blackstone’s dominance in the rental market is both a result and a driver of America’s housing crisis.
• Profiteering in housing is tightly linked to weak regulation, technological collusion, and political power—enabled by obscurity and bipartisan connections.
• Tenant movements and legal actions are fighting back, especially at the local level, but systemic change remains a steep climb.
• Housing is a key site where inequality and the influence of corporate capital are intensely felt and contested.

Further Resources

• Private Equity Stakeholder Project: PEStakeholder.org
  • Focus: Housing, climate, labor, healthcare, mass incarceration

End of Summary