Julián Castro, former Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, will be the kickoff speaker in Fresno City College’s Speakers Forum series.

Castro will appear at noon Wednesday in the Old Administration Building auditorium and is scheduled to talk about the nation’s housing crisis and his thoughts on the upcoming presidential election. Admission is free.

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Off-campus attendees should purchase a $1 daily parking pass at www.mycampuspermit.com/fresno-city.

Castro, who unsuccessfully ran as a Democrat for president, served as the 16th Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Barack Obama from 2014 to 2017, and as mayor of San Antonio from 2009 to 2014. He co-chaired the United States delegation to the United Nations Habitat III conference, spearheaded efforts to reduce homelessness, and created Connect Home, a public-private partnership to deliver broadband to public housing residents.

The Texas native began his public service career in 2001 and became San Antonio’s youngest city councilman in history at the time when he was 26. He made history again in 2012 when he delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, the first Latino to do so.

Castro now serves on the board of directors of the LBJ Foundation and is a political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. He is CEO of the Latino Community Foundation, the nation’s largest Latino-serving foundation.