South LA Welcomes Joe Biden

Updated 7:45 AM PST, Fri, May 15, 2009

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Vice President Joe Biden planned Friday to visit a charitable organization in South Los Angeles, where he will tout the $787 billion federal economic stimulus package.

Biden will tour the Esperanza Community Housing Corp., which provides low-income residents in the Figueroa Corridor neighborhood with affordable housing and health services help.

He will be joined by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Los Angeles, and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Deputy Secretary Ron Simms, according to the White House.

Biden is then slated to discuss how the Recovery Act is supporting HUD programs to eliminate lead-based paint from low-income homes to protect young children from lead poisoning.

During a visit to San Diego on Thursday, Biden and his wife praised sailors from the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan and thanked them for their service as they prepared for deployment.

Biden told sailors gathered alongside the Reagan at Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado they should take pride in their Navy service.

The nation, he said, is "indebted to you and that it feels an immeasurable amount of respect for all you stand for."

"Your generation is the most powerful, best disciplined, best trained group of warriors the United States of America has ever produced and don't you ever forget it," Biden said.

Biden also announced the temporary expansion of a military homeowners assistance program using $555 million in federal stimulus money. The program will help military families who are forced to sell their homes at a loss as a result of being relocated.

Biden, who has a son serving in Iraq, also paid tribute to the thousands who have been killed or wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"So few are serving, and so few are giving so much, that so many should appreciate," he said.