St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker addresses audience while Karen Jackson-Sims, Director, Tampa HUD Field Office looks on

Comments were provided during the program by Mayor Rick Baker, St. Petersburg, Florida who spoke on the importance of homeownership and the values that are established in neighborhoods and families. Also joining the ceremony were former Mayor David Fisher, who currently serves as the Chairman of Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc, and State Representative Frank Peterman, Jr. (House District 55).

The agreement, emphasizing the disparity between the non-minority homeownership rate (74.2%) and the minority homeownership rate (49.7%), is also meant to encourage an ongoing dialogue between HUD and each agency. This dialogue will assist in the further promotion of increased outreach, education, and program utilization to assist in the achievement of HUD's national goal to increase by 5.5 million the number of minority homeowners by the year 2010.

Seventy people attended the event. Eighteen agencies stepped forward to sign the Memorandum of Understanding with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development including:

-City of St. Petersburg
-Neighborhood Housing Services
-Statewide NAACP
-7 Local Chapters of NAACP
-Urban League of Pinellas County
-Tampa Bay Community Development Corporation
-UNO Federation Community Services
-Corporation to Develop Communities of Tampa, Inc.
-Mt. Zion Community Development Corporation
-Tampa Housing Authority
-St. Petersburg Housing Authority
-Pinellas County Housing Authority