By SAJE Staff
August 26, 2026
Earlier this month, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass nominated Daniel Tenenbaum, who has held longstanding leadership in the California Apartment Association (CAA), one of the state’s most influential landlord lobbying groups, to the Board of Commissioners for the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA). His nomination must be approved by the Los Angeles City Council. The matter was waved out of their Housing Committee, but yesterday the full council unanimously voted to send it back for further review.
Established in 1938, HACLA’s mission is to “provide, preserve, and expand quality affordable housing and promote community and economic opportunity in Los Angeles.” The agency has an annual budget of $1 billion and serves more than 200,000 low-income renters across the city, administering public housing and Section 8 and managing thousands of commercial and residential rental properties. HACLA’s Board of Commissioners are responsible for stewarding the public housing, public land, public resources, and public policies that safeguard the housing and economic stability of thousands of low-income Angelenos. Which is why SAJE is alarmed that the Los Angeles City Council is considering appointing Daniel Tenenbaum to the Board.
Tenenbaum served for years on the CAA State Board and identifies himself as a past chair of CAA’s Los Angeles Advisory Board. These roles raise serious questions about Tenenbaum’s ability to represent the public interest. CAA’s record demonstrates why: the organization has repeatedly opposed tenant and climate protections on behalf of the private real estate industry. Most recently, CAA challenged Pasadena’s voter-approved Measure H, which established rent stabilization, just-cause eviction protections, and a tenant-majority Rental Housing Board, successfully overturning portions of the measure concerning relocation assistance and eviction notice requirements. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CAA opposed the city’s eviction moratorium and rent freeze, called on council to terminate those protections, and later supported litigation challenging the eviction moratorium as unconstitutional. CAA also opposed strengthening the city’s Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance, fought the elimination of “substantial remodel” evictions, and opposed proposed rent freezes and eviction protections following the 2025 wildfires. The organization is currently challenging the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s zero-NOx standards for water heaters and boilers, a significant building decarbonization policy.
We are grateful that the city council made the right decision yesterday by voting to send this item back to the Housing Committee, where the nomination will be up for discussion. The council must examine whether Tenenbaum’s relationships with CAA and the private rental housing industry will conflict with his HACLA obligations. They must do more to understand how Tenenbaum would approach HACLA decisions involving tenant protections, relocation requirements, private development and management partners, decarbonization standards, and legislation on which CAA has taken an opposing position. At minimum, council must clarify the nature of Tenenbaum’s current relationship with CAA, whether he intends to continue serving on CAA’s Board if appointed to HACLA’s Board, his financial and organizational relationships with entities that do business with HACLA, and the circumstances under which he would recuse himself from policy decisions.
SAJE urges full Housing Committee consideration and the opportunity for meaningful public input before voting on Tenenbaum’s appointment. HACLA residents deserve confidence that those entrusted with governing their homes will prioritize resident stability, long-term affordability, and responsible stewardship of public resources. They also deserve the opportunity to ask whether someone who has helped lead an organization dedicated to advancing the interests of private landlords should be entrusted with governing Los Angeles’ public housing.
This item is likely to be agendized in the next couple of weeks, and we need to be ready to make our voices heard.
