Leigh Thomas Brown criticizes California Assembly Bill 1840, which would give interest-free down-payment loans to undocumented immigrants. He argues it wastes taxpayer money and worsens housing affordability instead of addressing the real problem: insufficient housing supply. Brown urges real-estate professionals to contact legislators and push for building more homes.
Now, first of all, let me be clear. I work with a lot of folks from California. I find them to be delightful new residents of North Carolina. We welcome you to our four seasons and the mountains and the beach and a very vibrant job environment and relatively friendly people. And we'd love to teach you how to eat and talk correctly. So come ahead on. My issue's not with you. My issue, though, has to do with the elected officials in California. And my question is very simple. What are y'all doing when it comes to housing? I just read Assembly Bill 1840 proposed by a lawmaker in Fresno, and if you want to go pause to go read it and then come back, when you come back you're going to have high blood like I have right now because I still can't believe I just read this. It's a proposal that illegal aliens be given interest-free loans to buy houses. Now, some of y'all thinking, but Leigh, that's fine. We want everybody to own a home. Mm. Well, how about the American taxpayer first? Seems crazy, right? No, the American taxpayer, if we're going to give out interest-free loans, let's take care of those that are paying into the system first. And then let's also address this little hiccup problem we have here. Affordability is very out of whack right now. We have so many Americans who are despairing of the hope of ever owning a home because the numbers just don't work for a lot of people. And if that's the case, then we should be figuring out how to increase supply, not add more demand. We continually get the economic equation completely backwards. We should be thinking about how do we support builders, how do we create new housing styles, how do we take care of our communities and do smart growth at the same time increasing opportunities. That's where the dollars would wisely be flowing, but they're not flowing there. Your American taxpayer dollars are going to fund an interest-free down payment for illegal aliens. That doesn't make any sense. I mean, y'all, this is not about the lack of support for immigrants. Charlotte and the whole area that I serve, very vibrant area. We've got people from all over the world. We welcome them here. We're delighted to have a really cool area to live. Those are the folks who follow the law, though. There are loan programs for those who follow the immigration laws. What California is proposing is for illegals who are not following the laws, but they're going to get to have interest-free down payment. This does not make sense. And you can't make it make sense for me. What I will say is this: if you live in California and you're frustrated because the costs have gotten so high and you're frustrated because there's no inventory, you've got to reach out to your lawmakers. For anybody who ever fusses at me and says, "Realtors need to stay out of politics." Nope, nope, nope. You should not stay out of politics because if you don't speak up on behalf of the clients that you serve who can't afford to buy, then who's going to speak up for them? Those legislators need to hear from y'all. And for the record, this is not a partisan thing. This is really a common sense thing. If you are a California legislator, seems to me your oath of office was to take care of California taxpayers first. And California citizens first, not to give freebies to illegals at a time when we're already in a crisis of assimilation and a crisis of inventory and a crisis of affordability. Assembly Bill 1840 needs to be stopped. And frankly, if you're in California and that kind of legislation frustrates you, well, you welcome over here in the land of the free in North Carolina. We'll be glad to have you. But don't bring that bad idea with you, because if you just go back to Economics 101, y'all, it doesn't work. It doesn't help anybody. And frankly, if we want to help somebody build up generational wealth through homeownership, we should be encouraging them to follow the pathway to citizenship, encourage them to learn that this is a great country. America's always been the melting pot, the place to be. And if we want to make sure that stays accurate, We should be encouraging every newcomer to follow the laws, to learn what made this country great, to learn what liberty means, and to wave that American flag proudly so that when they buy their house, they understand that this is the place they want to own it, become a part of the community, and become a citizen. And then you go pay taxes like the rest of us, and we'll all hoist an adult beverage and fuss about taxation being theft, which is true, because this is actually theft in the form of taxation. California wants to steal from taxpayers and give to illegals. Doesn't make sense. Instead, we got to tell the story better and embrace homeownership, starting with Americans first. And if you disagree with me, that's fine. That's the American way. But you're going to have to learn how to make it make sense. Now, if you've got a question on a hot topic or you got something you want to talk to me about, drop it in the comments. Hit the subscribe button. Let's talk about it, and then let's fix it.
