With housing issues affecting a wide cross-section of America "Pensacola: A Proud Past, A Better Tomorrow" airs a look at how the issues of declining housing values, slowing housing starts, the sub-prime loan crisis, and the increasing demand for clean, safe housing for the economically disadvantaged are being addressed in our community.

The show, hosted by Debbie Ritchie, will begin broadcasting on April 12th at 6 p.m. on BLAB-TV, the Pensacola-based cable access channel, which Cox Cable customers can find at channel 6 and Mediacom customers can locate at channel 38.

The show will rebroadcast periodically over the next two weeks. "Pensacola: A Proud Past, A Better Tomorrow" has already broadcast shows looking at jobs as well as education. Now the show turns its attention to housing issues in our region.

Featured on the show will be Pat Hubbard, director of the City of Pensacola's housing department, Betty Salter, president of Habitat for Humanity, Diane Toepfler, president of the Pensacola Association of Realtors, and Al Muller, president of Metro Market Trends, a company that tracks real estate trends in Escambia County.

The show will also honor Habitat for Humanity for being a Difference Maker in the community. "We want to bring different people with expertise and a wide variety of viewpoints together to focus on some of the issues confronting this community," said Quint Studer, founder and CEO of the Gulf Breeze-based Studer Group, a healthcare consulting firm and the show's sponsor. "If we get some objective information out there, the community will be able to see and understand the problems we all face. "I continue to believe that if people understand the problems, they will work to solve them."

Host Debbie Ritchie said the show's purpose is to "paint a portrait of our community." "Where are we as a community? How well are we addressing our community's needs?" she said. "As we expand the discussion into other forums, we hope to generate a community conversation and to set some benchmarks so that next year or five years from now when we look at these issues, we will have the information we need to judge if we are moving in the right direction.