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Hey guys, welcome back to LA H and brother.
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I know we always talk about it.
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Housing is so freaking expensive right now.
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Like I know I moved out and I've been saving and
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saving and saving, but I don't see anything happening.
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All these mortgages and down payments and I just feel like our
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generation is doomed. I just give up.
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we can't get it together.
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I get my cards back.
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Well, look today we have Representative Analise Ortiz who fights for
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housing affordability and first time home buyer programs.
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How you doing? Good and you could be better if I
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But what are you doing?
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Good? I can't complain.
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I can't complain. Well,
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thank you so much for taking the time with your representative.
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so we keep hearing about venture capitalist firms and corporations buying up
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homes making housing unaffordable.
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Can you tell us a bit more about that?
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I represent a district here in Arizona that is majority Latino and
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it includes West Phoenix in South Glendale.
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And corporate homeownership continues to be a problem because we have corporations
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who are seeing that Arizona has a housing shortage and they are
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taking advantage of that by buying homes and then renting them out
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at much higher prices.
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I know both presidential candidates have dropped their housing policies.
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This election? Can you tell us about Kamala Harris's new
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plan for affordable housing and how it affects the Latino community?
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I'm really encouraged to see that Vice President Harris and in our
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walls, really see the importance of building more housing as a
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crucial need to drive down costs.
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We have what is essentially a huge supply and demand problem when
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it comes to housing.
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We have too many people that want need a place to
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live and we just have not been building at the rate that
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is necessary. And then you add on the complications of having
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those corporate homeowners and you're left with this affordability crisis that we're
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seeing right now. So I'm very encouraged that Vice President Harris
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wants to build and to expedite development of all types of housing
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She also has proposed giving homeownership down payment assistance up to
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$25,000 to help families pay that down payment.
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And this is huge for Latinos because we continue to be behind
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our white counterparts when it comes to homeownership.
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And that has to do with the many,
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many factors, but it absolutely has to do with systemic racism
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that has impacted housing from the beginning of this country's inception.
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So the fact that she wants to give people that little bit
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of assistance so they can get into a house and to level
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the playing field so that regardless of race,
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you can become a homeowner.
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I'm really excited about that.
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So there's some hope for us.
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Is there some hope for it?
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And I know that both Trump and JD Vance have openly spoken
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about deporting undocumented immigrants to make room for housing.
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How would that even work?
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First of all, it's just absolutely ridiculous.
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They are playing this game that they love to play,
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which is to demonize migrants and blame them for all of the
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other problems that exist in our country when that is just not
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true and it is not the case.
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It's really wrong to try to equate our housing crisis with immigration
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and the normal immigration patterns of people coming to America and making
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it their home. They have said repeatedly that they want mass
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deportations and that should terrify anybody.
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It would bring in huge constitutional and civil rights violations.
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And then on top of that,
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this whole idea that it would somehow address our housing crisis is
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just bogus. It seems like again,
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like you said, it's a scare tactic and just an excuse
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right, the scapegoat for this.
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And do they actually have any substantial policies that could help like
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homeowners or is it just all in this kind of,
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unfortunately, I have not really seen anything that would be a
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substantial change to the,
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the need for homeownership to be more attainable.
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Coming from the Republican Party here in Arizona,
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we have had some success in pushing bipartisan legislation on housing.
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So I'm excited about the,
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We've been able to get done through our state legislature,
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but it's very different on the federal level.
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Much more complicated to get Congress to agree.
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and so I feel as though what we're seeing definitely
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from the presidential candidates.
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Vice President Harris is the only candidate with an actual plan
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that is going to drive down the cost of rent and housing
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Ok. These are the presidential candidate policies,
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but is there anywhere else that we can find help?
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I mean, it's tough out here in the streets.
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is there any additional bills in play to help first time home
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buyers that we should be aware of?
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I would encourage you in whatever state you're watching from to look
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into your state's housing departments,
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you might be able to find some assistance there here in Arizona
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I was really proud to have played a key role in
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doubling investments to our state's housing trust fund and some of that
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money went to a down payment assistance program here locally.
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So it's definitely something that within your own respective states,
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you should be pushing your elected leaders to take action on the
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local level. Thank you so much,
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Representative Ortiz, we really appreciate you,
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you know, helping us out with this and,
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and giving us more resources and we're definitely more hopeful and maybe
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you know, I will be a homeowner one day.
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You too, but we need more people like you because yeah
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it's tough out there.
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I know I keep saying it,
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but it's really, really tough.
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But how can we follow you and support?
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Yes, please find me on Tik Tok at Rep Anise Ortiz
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You can also find me at that same handle on Instagram
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X and Facebook. Amazing.
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Thank you. Have a great day.
Series