WASHINGTON, D. C. - U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge - who represented the Cleveland area in Congress for more than a decade- will make her first trip to Ohio on Friday in her official capacity as a member of President Joe Biden’s cabinet.
A HUD official said Fudge will recognize Juneteenth and National Homeownership Month by serving as keynote speaker at a Cleveland State University event to promote Black homeownership. CSU President Harlan Sands, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, will also address the event. The HUD official said Fudge previously visited New Jersey, Oklahoma and Missouri in her official capacity as Secretary.
The Cleveland event’s speeches will focus on economic justice and closing the racial wealth gap, the HUD official said. Hosts of the event include National Housing Conference, Urban Institute, National Association of Realtors, Mortgage Bankers Association, National Fair Housing Alliance, National Association of Real Estate Brokers and NAACP.
On Tuesday, Fudge told a group of mayors in a virtual meeting that Biden wants to put more than $300 billion into housing programs.
“We know right now there’s no place in this country where a person making minimum wage can even afford a two-bedroom apartment, let alone a place to call home,” Fudge said as she decried low homeownership levels. “We have a lot of work to do.”
Fudge graduated from CSU’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and served as Warrensville Heights mayor before she was elected to Congress in 2008. She was confirmed as Biden’s HUD secretary in March. CSU says she’s their first graduate to serve in a presidential cabinet.
She was inducted to the law school’s Hall of Fame in 2017, and served as the university’s May commencement speaker, telling graduates in a virtual speech that her agency’s mission is “to help provide every person with a fair chance to live with dignity, with security, with grace and respect, a home.
“Class of 2021, remember that you will always have a home at CSU, a place where you can feel seen, protected and valued,” she continued. “No matter where life takes you, you will always be a member of this community.”
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