Listening. Learning. Improving California's Rental Experience.
Our principles

The commitments that guide our work.

These are not slogans. They are the standards we hold ourselves to in every conversation, every dataset, and every word we publish. We invite both renters and housing providers — and we hold ourselves to the same principles for each.

01

We listen before we recommend.

Understanding comes first. Conclusions come later, and only when the evidence supports them.

02

We respect renters.

Renters' experiences are real, varied, and worth understanding on their own terms.

03

We respect landlords.

Housing providers' experiences are equally real and equally welcome here.

04

We believe transparency builds trust.

Open methods and honest data earn the confidence of everyone we work with.

05

We follow evidence.

We go where the data leads, not where opinion or pressure points.

06

We welcome disagreement.

Differing views make our understanding sharper, not weaker.

07

We protect privacy.

Individual stories stay private. Identities are never published without permission.

08

We improve ideas through research.

Better questions and better data lead to better policy discussions.

We are not collecting stories to prove a point. We are collecting stories to understand the problem.

The California Rental Experience Project does not advocate for landlords or tenants. We advocate for better understanding through research, transparency, and respectful dialogue.

The California Rental Experience Project is an independent research initiative. The experiences shared on this website represent the views of individual participants. Submission of a story does not imply verification of factual claims, endorsement by the Project, or legal conclusions. Published reports rely on aggregated, anonymized data unless explicit permission is provided.
© 2026 California Rental Experience Project. Individual experiences are kept private and are never published. Only aggregate, anonymous data is shared publicly.

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