Michael Weinstein is known mostly for being the man behind the AIDS Healthcare Foundation — the largest AIDS charity in the world. But these days he’s been spending a good part of his time and his foundation’s money shaking up another critical aspect of Los Angeles life: housing.
Weinstein, 71, who co-founded the AIDS nonprofit in 1987 and has led it ever since, turned the Hollywood-based foundation from a small organization that provided hospice care for AIDS patients into a healthcare behemoth that takes in $2.5 billion in revenue annually, largely from its network of pharmacies.
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The money comes from a federal program designed to provide care to indigent HIV and AIDS patients. And it has allowed Weinstein to jump into major political campaigns.
Three of the last four statewide elections have included at least one initiative sponsored by the foundation. Campaign finance records show the charity has spent roughly $100 million combined on the efforts.
Each of the ballot measures — requiring adult film actors to wear condoms, capping state costs for prescription drugs and twice attempting to expand rent-control policies — has failed, but Weinstein seems to be just getting started.
Weinstein believes his causes are righteous and has demonstrated a stubborn willingness to try again and again to get voters to agree.
His biggest battles yet might be coming this year. The foundation is behind a third rent-control initiative for the November election. An association representing rental property owners, meanwhile, is sponsoring its own statewide ballot measure that’s specifically targeted to take down Weinstein. Should the association’s initiative succeed, the foundation would largely be prohibited from political spending.
Weinstein believes his causes are righteous and has demonstrated a stubborn willingness to try again and again to get voters to agree, even though drug companies and landlord interests have spent double what the foundation has to defeat the efforts. Weinstein once likened his doggedness to “gum on your shoe.”
Others have been less kind to the aggressive tactics Weinstein has deployed over the years against politicians and fellow AIDS activists, dubbing him a “thug,” a “bully” and “Satan.”
Apart from his ballot fights, Weinstein also has made the foundation into one of the largest landlords on Skid Row, spending tens of millions to buy up single-room occupancy hotels with the stated intent of offering cheap rents to get homeless residents off the streets. But the foundation’s buildings are replete with faulty plumbing, heating and electricity, and other major problems, Times investigations have shown.
