A state organization tasked with advocating for and providing legal services to Mississippians with disabilities will stop taking new cases for the first time in its history, the organization announced Thursday.
The federally mandated nonprofit has not received the remainder of its federal funding for the current fiscal year. The organization, referred to as a protection and advocacy agency, is awaiting over $700,000 for several critical programs.
“ … Without our promised funding, if someone calls tomorrow and needs assistance, we can only refer them to another agency, which is so troubling and antithetical to the mission-driven work that we do,” Polly Tribble, DRMS’ executive director, said in a press release.
The funding delays will affect the organization’s ability to investigate reports of neglect and abuse and to advocate for voter accessibility for those with disabilities, among other services. The five affected programs are funded through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration and Administration on Community Living – both housed under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Disability Rights Mississippi recently released a report uncovering widespread misconduct in the industry of unlicensed personal care homes across Mississippi, where, unlike in other states, these facilities “have the ability to comfortably engage in illegal practices without the threat of licensing agencies penalizing them.”
The organization is waiting on just over $741,000 out of $1.3 million awarded for those programs, DRMS Communications Director Jane Carroll told Mississippi Today.
The magnitude of the money being withheld is what’s leading the nonprofit’s leaders to call this year’s delays a “funding crisis.”
“Maybe one program could be delayed, that’s not totally unheard of … But what’s different here is that it’s all five programs from Health and Human Services, which are our larger programs,” Carroll explained.
Mississippi’s health and mental health departments have fallen victim to massive cuts in funding in recent months from HHS under the Trump administration.
Protection and advocacy agencies supporting the rights of disabled people in New Jersey and Arkansas have had to limit their services in recent weeks due to not receiving the federal funding they are owed, Mother Jones reported.
A draft of President Donald Trump’s proposed 2026 budget shows eliminations or significant funding reductions of many of DRMS’ programs, Tribble said in the press release.
For the time being, the organization will focus on continuing to serve current DRMS clients as funding allows, but has instated a hiring freeze until further notice.
“It seems all of these changes, eliminations, and delays are in the name of efficiency and to save money, but our work enables Mississippians to get back to work, to be self-reliant, and to avoid institutionalization in the expensive facilities that rely on taxpayer dollars,” Tribble said. “So not only does our agency’s operations make financial sense, but also, the work we do literally saves lives. We are at a loss at the thought of no longer being able to serve the community we so deeply value.”
