The measure is sponsored by the California Apartment Association, which has clashed with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation for years over its efforts to allow for stricter rent control laws through ballot initiatives.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation makes $2 billion a year, mostly from its chain of pharmacies and clinics. Its foray into housing has drawn criticism for deviating from its mission of helping people living with HIV or AIDS.
In recent years, the health care foundation has spent more than $300 million to fund rent control initiatives and buy apartment buildings across the country, including in and around Skid Row, claiming it could address chronic homelessness where others have failed.
The foundation says it has taken nearly 1,000 people off the streets and placed them in permanent housing at its Skid Row-area properties, but those buildings have also suffered from heating, plumbing, elevator and electrical failures, and vermin infestations, The Times found in an investigation published last fall.
Other supporters of Prop 34 include health organizations such as the ALS Association and the California Chronic Care Coalition.
