PUBLIC FORUM ON HOUSING SLATED HERE FRIDAY

A public forum on the availability of housing in Southeast Missouri is being sponsored by the Cape Girardeau Chapter of the Missouri Association for Social Welfare.

The forum will be held from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. Friday at the Crisp Hall Auditorium on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University.

The event is entitled: "Homelessness and Inadequate Housing in Cape Girardeau and the Missouri Bootheel."

Panelists will include: Roy Pierce, director of the St. Louis office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's fair housing and urban development unit; Sarah Hunter, administrative assistant for the Delta Area Economic Opportunity Corporation, which is a Bootheel homeless coalition; and Rick Murray, who is supervisor of the Housing Inspectors Office for the city of Cape Girardeau.

Sherry Billingsley, vice chairman of the Cape Girardeau MASW chapter, is coordinating the forum.