Cleveland NAACP to hold open housing committee meeting January 14, 5:30 pm, Bright Star Missionary Baptist Church with representatives from offices of Congresswomen Fudge and Kaptur, community activists on foreclosures, housing discrimination, too many greater Cleveland women found raped and murdered in and near too many abandoned homes, support for greater Cleveland minority contractors, NAACP to later take public testimony on the issues, subsequent congressional testimony seeking legislative changes is possible

By Kathy Wray Coleman,  Editor-in-Chief,

Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog,

Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog 

 (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

Kathy Wray Coleman is  a community activist and 20 year investigative journalist

 who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper, Ohio's Black press with 

print newspapers in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio

CLEVELAND, Ohio- The housing committee of the Cleveland Chapter NAACP will meet with local community activists groups, minority contractors, representatives for two prominent Ohio congresswomen,  and family members of women subjected to violence on Tuesday, January 14, 2014 at 5:30 pm at Bright Star Missionary Baptist Church in East Cleveland, 13028 Shaw Ave. The open meeting will address Cuyahoga County foreclosures,  housing discrimination issues, violence against women across racial lines in or near abandoned homes, and support for minority contractors, organizers said.

Special guests include Steve Fought from the office of Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, the longest serving woman in the U.S. House of Representatives, and John Hairston, the executive director for 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge, one of two Blacks in Congress from Ohio and the chairperson of the Congressional Black Caucus of Blacks in Congress. For more information contact the Cleveland NAACP at 216-231-6260. Both Fudge and Kaptur have greater Cleveland constituents and Fudge's 11th congressional district includes the east side of Cleveland while Kaptur's 9th congressional district includes parts of the city of Toledo, Ohio and the west side of Cleveland.

Cleveland NAACP Housing Committee Chairperson the Rev. David Hunter, the senior pastor at Bright Star, said that "it is a public meeting and everyone is invited to attend."

Over 30 community activists representing a host of greater Cleveland activist groups including the Imperial Women Activists Group, Black on Black Crime Inc., the Carl Stokes Brigade, the Cleveland African-American Museum, the  Black Contractors Group, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, the Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network, Peace in the Hood, the Cleveland Chapter of the New Black Panther Party, the People's Forum,   Sister to Sister, the Oppressed People's Nation, and the Fairfax Business Association have joined the housing committee. They plan to testify publicly at a later time on the foreclosures, abandoned homes, minority contractors and violence against women of greater Cleveland. Testimony is slated first, said Cleveland NAACP officials, for the NAACP and likely thereafter for Congress relative to  prospective legislation around foreclosures, housing discrimination, unprecedented violence against women and abandoned homes. 

Family members of women found raped or murdered at or near abandoned homes in greater Cleveland will also attend the meeting and have said that they want to testify, community activists organizers said.

The Cleveland NAACP is led by the Rev Hilton Smith, an associate minister at Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church in Cleveland and a community relations vice president for Turner Construction Company. Sheila Wright is the local chapter's executive director. 

Retired Judge Sara Harper, the third vice president for the Cleveland NAACP, the local chapter of the nation's most prominent Civil Rights organization, said that she would arrange for the stenographer for the testimony for the NAACP, which will likely occur within the next couple of weeks .  (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)