Proposed ballot measure could strip AIDS Healthcare Foundation of nonprofit status

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PROPOSED INITIATIVE WOULD CLOSE LOOPHOLE EXPLOITED BY AIDS HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION

Officially, the Los Angeles-based nonprofit AIDS Healthcare Foundation bills itself as the world’s largest provider of HIV/AIDS medical care, providing life-saving medication to people in 45 countries.

Unofficially, the AHF, and its President Michael Weinstein, has been a prolific author of ballot measures, including one to undo cities’ limits on imposing rent control.

Those efforts have put Weinstein and the AHF at odds with the California Apartment Association, which is funding a campaign to place their own measure on the ballot — one to force “worst offenders” like AHF to spend 98% of their revenue on on direct patient care and to bar them from overcharging the government for prescription drugs, according to a statement from the group Protect Patients Now.

Failure to abide by those restrictions would result in the AHF being stripped of its nonprofit status.

The proposed ballot measure has been submitted to the California Attorney General’s Office, where it will receive a title and description before being cleared for signature collection.

Reached for comment, the AHF released a statement calling the California Apartment Association an “anti-renter” organization that has “singlehandedly caused a mass exodus from California.”

“CAA fills the coffers of politicians to the brim to block renter protections and has spent hundreds of millions to defeat rent control. They hide behind mom-and-pop landlords but are controlled by corporate vultures. CAA is so afraid of the voters that they need to muzzle renter advocates. They are classic bullies who can’t deal with a fair fight.”

The group said that California’s 17 million renters can’t get relief because state lawmakers are “bought and paid for by CAA.”

The campaign for the proposed ballot initiative accused Weinstein of being a “safety net scammer” who exploits loopholes in the federal drug discount program for money to pursue his own agenda — including spending $113 million on ballot measure campaigns to block affordable housing and to impose rent control.

The group cites reporting from the Los Angeles Times, where tenants of the AHF describe the multi-billion-dollar nonprofit as a “slumlord” that spent more than $100,000 to employ disgraced Los Angeles City Council member Kevin de León as a consultant.

The group cites a July poll by FM3 Research that found that 60% of Californians would support such a ballot measure, while just 25% opposed it.

DAVE MIN PLEADS NO CONTEST TO DUI CHARGE

Orange County Democratic State Sen. Dave Min has pleaded “no contest” to a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence.

As first reported by Politico California, Min entered the plea Tuesday and received three years unsupervised probation, a requirement that he enroll in an alcohol education program and $2,050 in fines. Min won’t serve any additional jail time, Politico reported.

Min is locked in a competitive race for the congressional seat held by Democratic Rep. Katie Porter, who is running to replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein in the U.S. Senate.

A spokesman for Min’s campaign referred The Bee to Min’s previous statement on the arrest, in which he apologized but vowed not to let it become a distraction for his work in either Sacramento or Washington, D.C.

Ben Petersen, western press secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee, called the conviction “more bad news for this embattled candidate running in one of the most competitive seats in 2024.”

“Democrats backing Min are recklessly speeding toward a dangerous political reality next fall,” Petersen said in a statement.

SB 4 COULD LEAD TO THOUSANDS OF ACRES OF NEW AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Via Maggie Angst...

A bill to make it easier for houses of worship and nonprofit colleges to build affordable housing on their properties is working its way through the California Legislature. But what kind of a dent would it really make in the state’s housing crisis?

The UC Berkeley Terner Center for Housing Innovation announced Tuesday that it identified nearly 172,000 potential developable acres owned by faith-based organizations or nonprofit colleges across California — enough land to cover the city of Sacramento nearly 3 times.

The majority of sites are located in resource-rich areas and single-family neighborhoods. Sacramento County has 831 parcels totaling 2,646 acres that would be eligible for the streamlined approval process proposed under Sen. Scott Wiener’s SB 4, according to the Center.

Still, it is unclear how much effect the bill, if passed by lawmakers, would have. A report released Wednesday by the Terner Center stated that significant barriers remain to scaling the development of affordable housing on these sites.

“While SB 4’s ministerial approval and minimum allowed development standards would address some issues around land use regulations, other challenges such as lack of technical expertise and limited local, state, and federal funding sources will likely continue to prevent many FBOs from creating new homes on their property, even if they are interested in doing so,” the report read.

QUOTES OF THE DAY

“When people reject offers of shelter, we should be able to enforce city laws. Last week, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the city agreed in court with this point. This was a huge step.”

- San Francisco Mayor London Breed, via X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

“Would you accept a ‘shelter offer’ that requires you to leave your pet behind? What about an ‘offer’ with a strict curfew that means you can’t work your job? What if this ‘offer’ requires you to trash most of your belongings? Proper housing is the only solution.”

- Anti Police-Terror Project, responding to Mayor Breed, via X.

Best of The Bee:

• A Rocklin school board official has drawn attention and received criticism in recent days for comments she made online last week, urging “Christ centered” parents to join district advisory committees, via Molly Jarone.

• Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Del Norte and Siskiyou counties Tuesday as wildfires force evacuations, destroy homes and cut power in Northern California, via Jacqueline Pinedo.

• California correctional officers are on track to win a deal that “fundamentally enhances” their retirement benefits through a “major policy change,” according to an initial analysis of the agreement produced by the Legislative Analyst’s Office, via Maya Miller.

• Sacramento State leaders said Tuesday that 49% of the Native American cultural items the university possesses and has not yet repatriated, and nearly three-quarters of its human remains have been claimed by tribal nations and will likely be returned “within the coming year,” via Alex Muegge.

• Six out of every 10 Californians with incomes below $35,000 struggled to pay for food, housing, medication and other basic necessities between March and July of this year, according to a report released Tuesday by the California Budget and Policy Center. Analysts with the nonprofit research center say there’s a way to address this problem: higher taxes on corporations, via Cathie Anderson.

• The union representing California state scientists will vote on whether they want to authorize a strike, should the state and the union reach an impasse at the table. The vote marks an escalation of a nearly three-year contract fight that saw scientists reject an offer from the state earlier this year, via Maya Miller.