Attorney Generals' offices press releases: on Welfare & Poverty

Shannon Liss-Riordan: Housing is a human right; establish Tenant Advocate office

Kamala Harris: Homeowner Bill of Rights: no foreclosure during negotiations

Ending the foreclosure crisis has become Harris' signature issue. She often visits hard-hit neighborhoods. "You have to see and smell and feel the circumstances of people to really understand them," Harris said. She successfully pushed through a first-of-its-kind Homeowner Bill of Rights. It requires banks to provide a single point of contact for California homeowners and stop the practice of dual tracking, in which lenders move ahead with a foreclosure, even while they're negotiating with the homeowner to modify a loan. California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill into law this month.

Harris has taken on the country's biggest banks before, suing them for foreclosure abuses. Harris got $18 billion with $12 billion of that amount going toward helping underwater homeowners.