South Bay Congressman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, stepped into the Democratic National Convention spotlight on Thursday evening as he touted Vice President Kamala Harris’s work to keep Californians housed and lower housing costs across the country.
The former computer science major opened his brief speech by cracking a joke as he marveled at how “large this AI generated crowd looks tonight.”
After raising some chuckles, he turned to a much more serious subject — the nation’s affordable housing crisis. He recalled first getting to know Harris in the middle of the Great Recession when he was serving as a State Senator and millions of Californians were facing foreclosure.
“My constituents told me stories about predatory and unfair home loans and how hard they were fighting to keep the homes that they love,” he said. “Thankfully, they had someone fighting just as hard for them.”
“Attorney General Kamala Harris led an investigation of the mortgage industry to root out fraud,” he continued. “She helped pass the Homeowners Bill of Rights and she held the big banks accountable, bringing back $20 billion to homeowners.”
Harris didn’t stop this fight when she was elected vice president, but continued to work to lower housing costs from inside the White House, he added.
“As president, she’s going to cut red tape so we can build more houses, help new homeowners afford a down payment and take on corporations that unfairly hike up rent,” he said.
Lieu noted that this cause is personal to Harris as she was raised by a working mom who worked early hours and late nights to keep her two daughters housed.
“It shouldn’t be this hard in America and President Kamala Harris will make sure it’s not,” he said. “She’ll fight to lower housing costs, so that everyone, everywhere can find a place to call home.
