This series on diabetes was produced by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and produced in partnership with the Community Foundation for Mississippi’s local news collaborative, which is independently funded in part by Microsoft Corp. The collaborative includes MCIR, the Clarion Ledger, the Jackson Advocate, Jackson State University, Mississippi Public Broadcasting and Mississippi Today.
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The problem: Nearly half of Mississippians are at risk of eviction or foreclosure, according to U.S. Census data — the fifth highest percentage in America. “We are in a mass scale affordable housing crisis, a mass scale eviction crisis,” an NAACP organizer says.
The solution: Mississippi has received $200 million in federal rental assistance — grants intended to reach both tenants and landlords so renters can keep their homes and landlords can continue to have income.
The hang-up: The Mississippi Home Corporation, which administers the federal grant money, has operated very slowly and the federal government may take back money if it is not spent soon.
The accountability: Scott Spivey, director of the Mississippi Home Corporation, told Mississippi Today his organization has implemented several measures to speed up the process of doling out the rental assistance. But several community organizers across the state say more needs to be done.
After a slow start that has been scrutinized nationally, the organization tasked with distributing federal rental assistance in Mississippi is scrambling to get the money into the hands of tenants and landlords before the federal government takes some of it back.
About 46% of Mississippians are at risk of eviction or foreclosure, according to Census data — the fifth highest rate in the nation. But Mississippi is middle-of-the-pack nationally in terms of getting federal rental assistance money out the door.
“We are in a crisis. We are in a mass scale affordable housing crisis, a mass scale eviction crisis — which disproportionately affects communities of color,” said Matthew Campbell, field organizer with the NAACP. “We have a rental assistance program to help alleviate some of that, but the funds have not reached people quick enough.”
The problem stands to most directly affect some of Mississippi’s most marginalized communities: To date, 80% of the applications for Mississippi’s rental assistance program have come from women and 86% of them from Black residents.
Eight months after payments were made to state and local governments across the country to run emergency rental assistance programs, the U.S. Treasury Department has laid out a plan to recoup funds if spending benchmarks haven’t been met.
Mississippi was at risk of having to send back large chunks of the federal rental assistance money — up to 10% of the total amount it received — if the state hadn’t spent at least 30% of their grant by Sept. 30.
Mississippi did not meet that benchmark, but the Treasury gave programs a grace period until Nov. 15 to get their spending up to speed. As of Oct. 10, Mississippi had obligated $43.6 million — about $7 million shy of the 30% benchmark.
The extension appears likely to save Mississippi from having to give any money back to the feds during this first round. However, the Treasury will be increasing the spending benchmarks by 5% each month, meaning Mississippi must continue working quickly to distribute the funds.
“We’re going to do everything in our power to try and keep as much money in Mississippi as we can to meet the benchmarks, stay within the guidance, and to keep this program going,” Scott Spivey, director of the Mississippi Home Corporation, told Mississippi Today.
The Home Corporation has made multiple adjustments since the slow beginning of the rental assistance program, Spivey said when pressed on what the state was doing. These changes include:
Spivey said that it takes 4-6 weeks from receiving a completed application to a payment being made, a wait time that they are trying to trim down. However, the “completed” there is a big caveat, because the majority of applications that they receive have issues or are missing information, which extends wait times even further.
READ MORE: Mississippi spent just 1.7% of rental assistance as anxiety heightened for renters
The Home Corporation has five full-time employees processing applications and contracted with Balch & Bingham, an Alabama-based law firm, for expanded processing power. That contract for $3.8 million, which has been the subject of scrutiny by the Washington Post and local community members, constitutes about 20% of the program’s total administrative budget.
While the Mississippi Home Corporation works to bolster its efforts, several community organizers who spoke with Mississippi Today say more needs to be done.
“It’s a pattern of delay, delay, delay, and ultimately late means never,” said Jeremiah Smith, an activist and organizer with the 662 Tenants Union.
Smith said communication issues with the rental assistance program have been an issue for the tenants he’s worked with, including being put on hold for multiple hours when calling the helpline. Tenants are also required to have an email address to apply for the program, which Smith said can be a barrier for many applicants; the Treasury does not require Home Corporation to collect email addresses from applicants.
Smith pointed out that while eliminating income documentation did help, the self-attestation forms (legally promising that you meet the program criteria) can still be logistically difficult to complete, limiting people’s ability to apply. The digital application includes three PDFs that must be printed out, completed, scanned, and re-uploaded, which can be difficult for older applicants or those with limited access to technology.
While self-attestation is required by the Treasury, Smith suggested making these forms native to the application and allowing them to be digitally signed, as is permitted in other parts of the application.
“If I was an individual renter, just trying to do it at home without assistance, I would have given up so long ago,” Smith said. “Especially if I was trying to do it on a cell phone. I would have assumed that the portal was broken or that I couldn’t understand it and I would have given up, which I think has happened to a lot of people.”
Campbell, who has hosted six rental assistance clinics through the NAACP, does not feel he has seen a properly robust field operation from the Home Corporation. He said community organizers in the state have stepped in to try and fill that gap, but he emphasized the need for more direct programming from the Home Corporation.
“A lot of people that we’ve encountered at our rental assistance clinics find the documentation and the readability/verbiage of the application difficult,” Campbell said. “We’ve found that direct, hands-on assistance assuages the difficulty of the process and reduces the number of incomplete applications.”
He is also concerned that the processing delays are hurting the program’s ability to attract more applicants.
“Some of the questions we’ve received at our rental assistance clinics are about the legitimacy of the program: ‘Is this program legitimate? Am I actually going to receive assistance?’” Campbell said. “One of the things I’m concerned about is that somebody who has applied for this program and it’s taking weeks for them to get processed — they might know somebody else who is in need of rental assistance, but because it’s taking so long for their friend to be processed, that other person won’t even bother to apply.”
The Home Corporation has received over 65,000 started applications and 25,386 submitted ones. Rivers Ormon, communications officer for the Home Corporation, acknowledged that this disparity is due, in part, to the online application being difficult for some people. She said the organization is working to decrease the size of the gap.
Pam Chatman, founder of Boss Lady Workforce Transportation, has also been helping tenants apply for assistance so that they can be processed faster and avoid application issues. Chatman partnered with the Home Corporation to host a rental assistance fair on August 11 in Cleveland, with almost 500 people in attendance.
Chatman thinks that the Home Corporation is working towards the mark, but that continuing to advertise and market the program should be a major goal.
“I have gotten several hundreds of phone calls of tears and crying and shouting, just overwhelmed that it has all been processed and their rent has been paid through 2022,” Chatman said. “We know that the program works, we know that it is successful, and we’re just trying to do our part to assist those families that are in dire need and make sure their application has been filled out correctly.”
Note: To apply for rental assistance, visit ms-ramp.com. If you live in Harrison County, you may also contact the Open Doors Homeless Coalition at 228-604-8011. For rental assistance in Hinds County, visit hindsrentalaid.com or call 601-514-0137.
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Dr. Alton Cobb, Mississippi’s legendary long-time state health officer and the first director of Mississippi’s Medicaid program, died on Oct. 14th just shy of his 93rd birthday. He spent his lifetime promoting public health in the state.
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As legislative leaders wait to see if Gov. Tate Reeves will call lawmakers into special session to vote on a medical marijuana proposal, groups opposed to legalized cannabis — who typically have the governor’s ear — are making a push against it.
The Mississippi-based Christian fundamentalist nonprofit American Family Association has issued a Q&A memo on the medical marijuana proposal with a headline claiming it’s “Worse Than You Could Imagine.”
The eight-page memo, which contains some inaccurate claims about what lawmakers have agreed to, says the proposed medical marijuana program would harm state employers, property owners, churches and religious organizations, and would allow medical marijuana users “to just sit on the couch and collect welfare.” It also says using marijuana “is immoral,” it “significantly compromises a person’s ability to act rationally (unlike a glass of wine, for instance),” and “THC fosters drug dependency and addiction.”
On Thursday, First United Pentecostal Church of Brandon is hosting an event for state law enforcement officers sponsored by the Mississippi Sheriffs’ Association and Mississippi Association of Chiefs of Police to cover “Policing in a State with a Medical Marijuana Program.” The director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and an assistant district attorney from Oklahoma will keynote the event.
Oklahoma’s medical marijuana program is so open it resembles recreational use, with about 10% of the population issued a card allowing cannabis use and more than 2,000 dispensaries in the state. Mississippi lawmakers heard from Oklahoma officials during summer hearings and said they heeded warnings from them when drafting Mississippi’s more conservative program.
Meanwhile, medical marijuana proponents have held rallies across the state in recent weeks. One group called “We are the 74” has called on its members to “occupy” the Governor’s Mansion starting this week. So far, only a sparse group of people has encamped outside the mansion in downtown Jackson.
READ MORE: Lawmakers reach long-awaited medical marijuana deal. Here are the details.
House and Senate negotiators worked through the summer crafting a medical marijuana program to replace the Initiative 65 program that voters passed, but the state Supreme Court shot down over constitutional issues.
Reeves, who has sole authority to call lawmakers into special session, had said he would do so once lawmakers had reached consensus on a draft bill. They did so in September, but Reeves has given lawmakers a last-minute laundry list of things he did not like in the bill.
READ MORE: Legislative leaders: Gov. Tate Reeves is holding up medical marijuana with ‘unreasonable demands’
Legislative leaders said they have conceded many of Reeves’ requested changes but that others are unreasonable. As governor, Reeves can’t control what lawmakers pass, but could veto any measure after the fact.
Republican Reeves, in his first term as governor, has sought support of, and input from, the AFA and other right-leaning religious groups and law enforcement organizations. He has said he opposes medical marijuana, but said he would call lawmakers into session to adopt a program to abide by the will of voters who overwhelmingly passed Initiative 65.
Legislative leaders said that if Reeves does not call them into special session as promised, they will take the issue up in the regular legislative session that begins in January.
READ MORE: No communication, last-minute gotcha: Gov. Tate Reeves is at it again with medical marijuana
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Deuce McAllister, one of the busiest guys around, joins the Cleveland boys to discuss the football weekend that was and what is coming up this weekend.
Stream all episodes here.
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Attorneys representing 600 Jackson children filed a federal lawsuit this week claiming they had been exposed to lead for years and that numerous officials in the city of Jackson and state of Mississippi attempted to cover it up.
The suit alleged that city and state officials — including current Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, former Mayor Tony Yarber and officials at the Mississippi State Department of Health — made “conscience-shocking decisions” and “showed deliberate indifference” that exposed the plaintiffs to lead.
The suit says that the city learned of its lead problem within its water well system in 2013 and was warned again in 2014. But instead of addressing it, the city attempted a quick fix that worsened the problem. The suit alleged that after the city learned of the higher lead levels, it quietly switched back over to the well system. Residents were kept in the dark the whole time, the suit says.
The plaintiffs in the case are children living in Jackson who attorneys say have been exposed to lead for years. Corey Stern, who was an attorney for plaintiffs in the Flint, Michigan, water case, is representing the Jackson children.
“Flint wasn’t a one-off — it was the canary in the coal mine that opened our eyes to water crises playing out in cities across America,” Stern said in a press release. “Jackson is yet another tragic and horrifying example of a city failing to do right by its residents and ensure they have clean access to drinking water.”
The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday against the city of Jackson, the Mississippi State Department of Health, Trilogy Engineering Services, and numerous current and former city and state officials “for allowing the city’s drinking water to become contaminated with lead.”
Click here to read the full lawsuit here, or read it below.
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Like that neighbor who turned his lights out to keep trick-or-treaters away, the governor is stalling on calling a special session.
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The Mississippi School Board Association is making it known it had no part in the National School Board Association’s request for federal assistance to protect school board members, students and educators from threats and harassment over issues such as mask-wearing and critical race theory.
The Mississippi School Board Association (MSBA) Board of Directors will also consider whether it will leave the national group at its November meeting, according to MSBA Executive Director Denotris Jackson.
The National School Board Association, which offers resources to and advocates for local school boards, in late September wrote a controversial letter to President Joe Biden.
The group asked the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies to assist local law enforcement in protecting school board members, students and educators from threats and potential violence stemming from debate over issues such as masks and critical race theory.
“The letter was sent without knowledge, input or approval from the Mississippi School Boards Association,” wrote MSBA Executive Director Denotris Jackson. “MSBA does not support the action taken by NSBA.”
The National School Board Association, or NSBA, cited a “growing number” of instances across the country of disrupted meetings and sometimes violence in the letter. The organization asked for the federal government’s help in identifying threats and suggested that some of the actions could constitute domestic terrorism or hate crimes.
“NSBA believes immediate assistance is required to protect our students, school board members and educators who are susceptible to acts of violence affecting interstate commerce because of threats to their districts, families and personal safety,” wrote NSBA President Viola Garcia and Interim Executive Director and CEO Chip Slaven.
The letter mostly cited threats via mail and social media, disruptions and some instances of violence stemming from the debate over mask-wearing policies in schools.
Shortly after the letter was sent, Attorney General Merrick Garland directed the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to begin meeting with state and local law enforcement officers to address these threats. The directive also said a task force will be created to determine how federal enforcement tools can be used to prosecute the crimes, “and ways to assist state, Tribal, territorial and local law enforcement where threats of violence may not constitute federal crimes,” in addition to other efforts.
Slaven, the NSBA CEO, praised the action.
School boards make and approve school policies, among other duties. In states like Mississippi where no executive order mandating masks in schools was issued this school year, board members are feeling the pressure of those decisions.
Jackson told Mississippi Today that her group has not heard from any board members who have received threats or intimidation.
“A few boards have mentioned that they have experienced an increase in requests by stakeholders to address the board, while others have not been impacted at all,” she said.
The NSBA’s letter to the president also mentioned that school board members are on the receiving end of strong opinions — and sometimes, actions — regarding another hot topic: critical race theory. The theory, which centers around the idea that racism is systemic in the nation’s institutions, has been banned by some states from being taught in schools.
Although State Superintendent of Education Carey Wright said recently this theory is not being taught in Mississippi schools, state leaders, including Gov. Tate Reeves, have said they intend to do the same.
“Coupled with attacks against school board members and educators for approving policies for masks to protect the health and safety of students and school employees, many public school officials are also facing physical threats because of propaganda purporting the false inclusion of critical race theory within classroom instruction and curricula,” said National School Board Association leaders in the letter to Biden.
“This propaganda continues despite the fact that critical race theory is not taught in public schools and remains a complex law school and graduate school subject well beyond the scope of a K-12 class,” they continued.
Jackson, however, said the language in the letter was detrimental to educators and undermined schools’ local control.
“The terminology used in the letter was inflammatory and has created great dissension, much unproductive discussion, and a rise of distrust in public school board members and educators,” she wrote.
Several state school board associations, including Louisiana, Virginia and Arkansas, have denounced the NSBA’s letter. The Pennsylvania School Board Association left the national group.
The NSBA offers resources to local school boards, including the Center for Public Education, Council of School Attorneys and others. It also advocates for policies that help public schools.
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A community college dean and a furniture company’s bookkeeper have been arrested for defrauding the state to access job training funds, according to the latest report from State Auditor Shad White.
The arrests are part of broader alleged misuse of $2.3 million in job training money over five years at Itawamba Community College. The case is the latest example of the state’s history of inadequate oversight over several millions of dollars in taxpayer funded workforce development programs.
“Now is the time for policymakers to acknowledge there are not enough fraud-prevention safeguards in place in our workforce training program,” White said in a statement. “Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent on this every year. We need to be sure the money is being used appropriately.”
White’s audit of the job training money spent through Itawamba Community College uncovered three unrelated misuses of funds that resulted in the arrests, as well as demands the college itself return about $1.4 million it should have never received.
Joe Lowder, Itawamba college’s former dean of economic and community services, was arrested on charges of fraud. He is accused of falsifying documents to hide double billing private companies and the Community College Board for the same expenses related to job training.
The result was roughly $10,000 in revenue to his department. He now has been instructed to pay back that amount with interest.
In an unrelated scheme, Eureda “Edie” Washington is accused of using her experience in applying for job training money to create and submit fake documents to Itawamba Community College to collect $680,000 for a Mississippi furniture company, Chapter 3, Inc. She is also facing fraud charges.
Itawamba Community College has a furniture academy that regularly partners with private companies to train workers in manufacturing.
Chapter 3, Inc., owned by Jennifer and David Schock, no longer appears to be active. The Schocks have not been charged with a crime but are named in a demand letter alongside Washington to repay the state about $867,000, which includes interest.
Washington’s contract with Chapter 3 specified she’d be paid a percentage of the job training money she was able to get for the furniture company. The paperwork she submitted to get reimbursement money showed discrepancies such as a student being listed in one class at the same time they were named an instructor in another.
“I’m thankful for investigators’ work which put a stop to this improper workforce training spending,” White said.
The fraud cases come as the state works to overhaul its workforce development spending and the launch of a new workforce development office, Accelerate Mississippi.
The money White’s office says was misused comes from a large pot collected through an unemployment insurance tax on businesses. Accelerate Mississippi is now tasked with overseeing that roughly $25 million pot, which includes the state’s Workforce Enhancement Training money – commonly called “WET” funds.
Prior to the creation of the new office, the Community College Board oversaw WET fund spending alone. All the money that White’s office says was misused was while it was still under the college board’s oversight alone.
“We are aware of this matter and hope for prompt resolution regarding concerns about the use of WET Funds,” Kell Smith, the interim director of Community College Board, said in a statement. “Both the Mississippi Community College Board and Itawamba Community College have assisted in providing information as part of this investigation. It is not appropriate to provide additional information at this time.”
Among White’s findings are that the community college should have never approved various reimbursements, like to a sofa manufacturer for nearly $1 million over five years. The office said the spending didn’t meet the law’s requirements of WET fund spending.
Accelerate Mississippi director Ryan Miller, who now has oversight of workforce spending, said his office has hired an accounting firm to improve oversight in spending. The lack of oversight, in part, is why his new office was created, Miller said. Miller says spending needs to focus on training that results in skills that increase Mississippians’ wages.
“Accelerate wants to make sure in our new responsibility we are doing this according to the law,” Miller said. “We are committed to ensuring we spend those dollars we have been entrusted with on valuable programming.”
Miller has already set up a new grant system that requires the state’s 12 community colleges to put in formal proposals to access additional workforce development funds.
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General Colin Powell have Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith and Bennie Thompson agreeing on something. That is nothing short of a miracle.
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