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35: Episode 35: Killer Karaoke

*Warning: Explicit language and content*

In episode 35, We discuss the My Way Killings; a strange phenomenon that took place in the Philippines among other similar cases. Also, April rants about trafficking for the first half of the show (Sorry!)

All Cats is part of the Truthseekers Podcast Network.

Host: April Simmons

Co-Host: Sahara Holcomb

Theme + Editing by April Simmons

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Shoutout podcasts this week: The Deep Dark Truth & Trace Evidence

Credits:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Way_killings

https://www.esquiremag.ph/culture/music/how-frank-sinatra-s-song-my-way-triggered-filipino-karaoke-killings-a00304-20191017-lfrm

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/My_Way_killings

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/world/asia/07karaoke.html

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Reeves extends mask mandate, limits crowd size at school extracurricular events

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

Gov. Tate Reeves speaks to media about his shelter-in-place order for Lauderdale County during a press conference at the State of Mississippi Woolfolk Building in Jackson, Miss., Tuesday, March 31, 2020.

Crowd size at extracurricular school activities will be limited to two spectators per participant through the month of August for both public and private schools, Gov. Tate Reeves announced Friday.

Reeves stressed Friday during his afternoon news conference that he believes it is important to allow students to participate in extracurricular activities, but said adequate safety precautions must be in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Sports and these other activities are instrumental in the lives of our young Mississippians,” he said in a statement. “They teach discipline and responsibility in a way that can’t be replicated. That said, we are living through a pandemic. One of my greatest concerns heading into this school season has been sports and those other events which cause the community to come out in crowds. Twenty-two players on a field is not going to overwhelm a local hospital. Two thousand people in a small school’s bleachers might.”

Reeves said the limitations will apply to all extracurriculars — not only sports — such as football and volleyball, but also band concerts and other events.

In recent weeks, the most interest has been directed at high school football. The public schools are not starting the season until Sept. 4, though, they are holding scrimmages in late August. Reeves said Friday he did not know if the same crowd limitations will be extended into September, though he said it is possible.

Reeves said he is still studying the issue of crowd size at college football games, which are not slated to start until later in September.

On Friday, Reeves also extended the current executive order until Aug. 31, requiring the wearing of masks statewide in public and the cessation of alcohol sales at bars and restaurants after 11 p.m.

The current order also limits social gatherings to 10 people indoors and 20 people outdoors.

“Our numbers are improving,” Reeves said Friday. He said the seven-day average of new coronavirus cases has declined from 1,358 three weeks ago to less than 800 per day for the most recent seven days.

State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs said the number of hospitalizations on average also has decreased, though there are currently 11 hospitals in the state with no intensive care beds available. Though the state has reported lower numbers of daily cases this week, Mississippi’s positivity rate remains one of the highest in the nation.

Dobbs said there are 38 counties in the state with schools where teachers and students have tested positive for COVID-19. He said 109 teachers and 69 students have tested positive. Currently more than 600 students and teachers are in quarantine because of possible exposure to the coronavirus.

“Most students are not catching it at school,” Dobbs said. Instead it is likely the coronavirus is being transmitted to students and faculty in the community and then being brought into schools, he said.

Reeves said at some point, most likely, cases will be reported at schools in all 82 counties.

Earlier, Reeves delayed the start of school for seventh grade and up for schools in eight counties with a high number of cases. That delay will end Monday.

The post Reeves extends mask mandate, limits crowd size at school extracurricular events appeared first on Mississippi Today.

State flag commission makes tweaks, narrows choices to nine

The Mississippi Flag Commission met Friday planning to narrow choices for a new state flag to five, but instead ended up with nine after much debate and tweaking of designs.

Those nine designs are available for public viewing and input on the Mississippi Department of Archives and History website. The commission reviewed nearly 3,000 public submissions for a new state flag design.

Commissioners plan to vote via online meeting Tuesday morning to pick five designs, of which cloth prototypes will be made and flown at the Old Capitol on Aug. 25. Then, commissioners will by Sept. 2 choose one flag to put before voters on Nov. 3.

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

Mississippi Highway Patrol officers retire the state flag outside of the Capitol in Jackson, Miss., Wednesday, July 1, 2020.

The Mississippi Legislature, after decades of debate, in June voted to remove the 1894 state flag with its divisive Confederate battle emblem. The legislation it passed created the commission to choose a new flag to put before voters on the Nov. 3 ballot. Voters can either approve or reject the new design. If they reject it, the commission will go back to the drawing board, and present another design to voters next year.

The legislation mandates the new flag include the words “In God We Trust,” and prohibits Confederate battle flag imagery.

Commissioners — who were appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker — on Friday debated intricacies of various designs and looked at multiple variations of numerous proposals.

Last month, the commission heard from a vexillologist, or flag expert, on principles of good flag design. But the commission has appeared to largely veer from his advice.

For instance, the expert recommended very simple design, that a child could draw from memory. Most of the choices by the commission so far are more complex, with intricate details of magnolia flowers and trees or the Mississippi River.

And the expert recommended avoiding vertical stripes, using only horizontal. Of the three remaining designs with stripes, all have vertical ones.

Commissioners also noted that numerous people have said magnolia blossoms or trees evoke the “Old South” the state is trying to shed with its flag change. An MDAH historian noted to commissioners that Mississippi’s first flag when it seceded from the Union had a magnolia tree.

But of the remaining designs, seven have magnolia blossoms or trees.

Commissioners on Friday also met with a lawyer, and approved a copyright and intellectual property agreement that finalists will have to sign before their designs could be chosen for the state flag.

The post State flag commission makes tweaks, narrows choices to nine appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Furr’s magical U.S. Am week dead-ends, shows that golf often really isn’t fair

USGA/Steven Gibbons

Not long after sunrise Thursday, Wilson Furr plays his second shot at the first hole at the U.S. Amateur at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Bandon, Ore.

Jack Nicklaus, the most accomplished champion in golf history, said it best: “Golf is not, and never has been, a fair game.”

Early Thursday afternoon, on Oregon’s wind-swept Pacific coast and on one of the sport’s most beautiful – and most challenging – courses, Jackson’s 22-year-old Wilson Furr might have agreed. Read on. You can’t possibly blame him.

All Furr had done over four days was shoot 19-under par for 69 holes, shatter a course record, shoot the second lowest round in the 125-year history of the tournament, win the U.S. Amateur’s 36-hole qualifier gold medal by two shots, and then rout his opponent in the first round of match play. And then, despite shooting a four-under par 67 in his second match, he lost.

Vanderbilt’s Harrison Ott, a good friend of Furr’s, played flawless golf Wednesday morning, matching Furr’s 67 and then beating him on the first hole of a sudden death playoff. By Wednesday evening, Furr was catching a plane back to Jackson.

Rick Cleveland

Had the first four rounds of the U.S. Amateur been a four-round, medal play event – like most PGA Tour tournaments – Furr would have lapped the field. He would have won by multiple shots. That’s not the case and maybe it doesn’t seem fair – but, as Nicklaus said, golf’s never been fair.

That’s the thing about match play. The best golfer of the week can run into a red-hot golfer in one match – and that’s that. The luck of the draw is very real in match play format. Ott, who played so fabulously against Furr, was four-over par on his first five holes in a later match Wednesday.

“It’s hard,” Furr said by phone before catching his flight. “I played solid golf all week and today might have been my cleanest round of golf of all. I felt good. I felt in control. And yet I am getting on an airplane while other guys are still playing.”

Steve Gibbons/USGA

Wilson Furr is all smiles after shooting a 11-under 132 (70-62) to earn Medalist honors at the end of the second round of stroke play at the 2020 U.S. Amateur at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Bandon, Ore.

This reporter reminded Furr that he had won the gold medal at the U.S. Amateur for the 36 holes of stroke play. And that he had shot 62 in the second round, eclipsing the course record at Bandon Trails by two shots. And that he had played perhaps the best golf of his life on the biggest stage of his life.

Replied Furr, “Yes, sir, but it’s just kind of hard to look at it that way right now. It’s just hard.”

Golf can be so fickle. After being two down early in the match with Ott, Furr battled back and took a one-up lead going to the 18th hole. Much to his credit, Ott birdied the 18th to force the playoff.

Both clobbered drives right down the middle on the par-four playoff hole. Furr, one of the longest drivers you will ever see, hit his drive eight yards past Ott, another long hitter. Ott hit his 143-yard approach about 30 feet from the hole. Furr had 135 yards to the pin against a slight breeze and up a steep hill that made his a blind shot. “Perfect pitching wedge for me,” he said.

Furr hit that wedge shot “right at it,” he said. “I really thought I was going to have two- or three-footer for birdie to win the match. I hit it that well.”

Not quite well enough as it turns out. Furr’s shot landed just short of the green, spun back and kept rolling down a steep incline to where he had 65 yards left to the pin. He actually faced a more difficult third shot than he had on his second. His third shot left him with a 30-foot putt that he missed. Ott two-putted for par and victory.

“Harrison told me he thought my second shot was perfect, too,” Furr said. “I don’t know how to explain it. I just don’t know.”

G-o-l-f, might be the best explanation. Stuff happens. Much of it isn’t fair. As the great Raymond Floyd once said, “They call it golf because all the other four-letter words were taken.”

At 22, Furr is well-versed on the highs and lows of the sport. As a young teen he won the prestigious Future Masters. At 16, he won Mississippi’s State Amateur championship by eight shots, shooting 16-under par for 72 holes. And then, at 18, playing as a freshman at Alabama, he started hitting the ball so far off line, he couldn’t even make the traveling team. “I was just awful,” he said.

In recent months, Furr has worked harder than ever on his game, especially on his wedge game and his putting. These past four days were proof that all that hard work has paid off – if not quite yet been rewarded the way he wants.

“I do feel like I’ve put some pieces together,” Furr said. “I’ve definitely made progress. I feel like these last four days will lead me somewhere.”

The post Furr’s magical U.S. Am week dead-ends, shows that golf often really isn’t fair appeared first on Mississippi Today.

How to Use your Daily Choices to Create the Life you Desire

Recently I had the pleasure of staying home with my nineteen-month-old son when our nanny had to take a week off. At first, I was slightly annoyed and super stressed about the change of schedule. I had so many deadlines with my work that I was not sure how I would make it all happen given the circumstances. I sat down and felt my anxiety rise up. All of this to do and not enough hours to do it in. I let a whole day pass with my crippling anxiety and panic attacks before I realized that I was bringing worry on myself that was not even necessary. I had to let it go. I had to let go the control. The panic. The anxiety. The inability to meet deadlines. The feelings of stress. I had to stop. I had to choose a different approach. Here I was, showing up and sharing with you all just last week about how to stop the busy train before you train wrecked, yet here I was watching myself wreck the train. 

Catching yourself as you break bad habits is hard enough. Choosing to change those habits is even harder. As I laid down that night and realized I had wasted a whole day with my son worrying about things I could not even control. I woke up the next day and decided no more. I was going to take back the control of my attitude. I was going to enjoy my day with my son. I was going to relish the time I had to spend with him. We slept in. We watched Disney movies on repeat. We played ball. We went outside for a walk. We had a fun mommy and son day. At the end of the day, my work was still there. The deadlines were still there. Things had not fallen apart even if I felt like they were going to do so. They all were still just waiting for me right there as I had left them that morning. As I watched his curly head go to sleep, I reminded myself…this is what is important. This right here. All the other things that seem so important didn’t hold a light to this moment right here and the memories I created with him that day. 

You see, I have two older children. Fourteen and thirteen years old. I am no longer cool to hang out with. They no longer want to really be seen in public with me. They think I am old and that I know nothing. I look back and wonder where the time went. It seems just like yesterday that they were toddlers who ached for my time, but I was too busy doing the “important” things like work and deadlines to see that they needed me more. I worked insane hours. I hardly saw them. When I was home I was on the phone with clients or team members. I never took the time to enjoy the kiddos back then. Now, I regret that. I guess hind sight is always 20/20 as they say. 

I almost have re-created the person I was back in those days of work pressure driven deadlines and climbing the corporate ladder. I can also assure you that once you make it to the top of the corporate ladder it is not near as fulfilling as you pictured it being. It is a lot more stress than you ever thought and it leaves you feeling empty. It is another reason I left my corporate job to pursue my passion of writing. It all fell back to a conversation I was having with my pre-teen daughter in the car. Being the wise beyond her years child she is, she was thinking about what she wanted to pursue as an occupation and she sought my advice. “Mom, what is your dream job?” she asked as we were driving along. I didn’t hesitate. “Being an author” I said passionately. The words that came back to me still echo in my ears…“Then why aren’t you doing that?” I had no words. Here I was telling my daughter ever since she was little to do whatever her heart desired. She could be anything she wanted to be, yet I was not leading by example. I was following the conditions of society that I needed a certain job, title, office and salary to be considered successful. I looked into her inquiring eyes and told her “You are right. I don’t know why I am not doing that, but I think it is time I start.” That day was a pivoting moment for me. I decided to change my whole career. I went off into a career that I had only done as a hobby before. I plunged into it with everything I had. I didn’t leave a “Plan B” option. I cut all my clients. I cut all my sources of income from my job. I rebranded my business and I went all in. 

Now, here I am, a best-selling author of several books. Just this year alone I have helped thirty-three women become best-selling authors as well, my daughter included. I watch as I see her blossom in her own writing and just the other day she told me she wants to be an author as well. My heart beamed with pride, not because she is following in my footsteps, but because I am living proof she can be an author full time. 

I have learned that it is easy to get distracted. Even though I own my own business now, I still get side-tracked. Even though I just wrote an article last week reminding you to not let busy run your life. I still allow it sometimes. I am human. The main thing is I try to catch myself. Choose a different choice and create a new pattern for my life. This past week, I have had fun with my little toddler while I could. I enjoyed every minute of it. When the stress of deadlines creeped into my head, I remembered that I would meet them all in due time. I might have to work when he goes to sleep or spend my Sunday afternoon loading our new book to be published next week, but it all will come together. What is important is breaking the cycle and enjoying my moments that will soon pass me by. 

You can create your life. Choose wisely and when you choose wrong, choose again. 

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Clarksdale mayor asks residents to clean up their neighborhoods as more city workers contract COVID-19

Mayor Chuck Espy in downtown Clarksdale.

Anna Wolfe / Mississippi Today

Clarksdale Mayor Chuck Espy

CLARKSDALE — City employees across all departments are seeing upticks in COVID-19 cases, leaving a shortage of employees to keep the town clean, according to Mayor Chuck Espy.

As a result, he took to social media Thursday to ask citizens to “do their part” by ceasing to litter, picking up trash and tidying up their neighborhoods for a minimum of 15 minutes a day.

“A lot of my team members are getting hit with the virus. I’m asking you to continue to wear your mask, practice social distancing and wash your hands,” Espy said on a Facebook live. “My request is I need your help and here’s how … Can you please get out and help cleanup in your neighborhood?”

In a phone call with Mississippi Today, Espy said he could not release the number of employees who tested positive for the virus. He did say there are currently 39 employees with COVID-19 related issues. This number accounts for individuals who may have tested positive or is awaiting test results, for instance. The city has approximately 138 employees. However, he did say, the city is becoming a “red zone,” and a “panic situation.” As of August 12, Coahoma County had a total of 798 confirmed cases and 13 deaths, according to data by the Mississippi State Department of Health.

This past week the state health department reported the lowest daily case totals of COVID-19 in about a month, but the state’s test positivity rate remains one of the highest in the nation, Mississippi Today reported

Last week, the state department of health issued an isolation order for individuals diagnosed with COVID-19. This order states those infected must isolate at home and remain at home for 14 days. Employers may approve the individual’s return to work 10 days after the day they experienced symptoms or were tested. If a person refuses to abide by the law, they may be forced to pay a fine of $500 or jail time for six months.

Aside from the state regulations and guidelines outlined, Clarksdale has not implemented any additional measures for city employees. 

Though city workers are “stretched to the max,” Espy said the city is still able to conduct its daily functions and operations, other than providing upkeep for the city. Additionally, they are working to hire private contractors to do grass cleanup and demolish 75 abandoned homes.

“At least once a week, I go out in the community … clean up right there in my own neighborhood and it takes about 15 minutes and we are needing  that type of help,” Espy added. “Clean it up, bag it up, and throw it in your trash can.”

The post Clarksdale mayor asks residents to clean up their neighborhoods as more city workers contract COVID-19 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Espy, Hyde-Smith campaigns release dueling polls in Mississippi Senate race

Mike Espy and Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith

An internal poll released by Democrat Mike Espy’s U.S. Senate campaign on Thursday reports he’s gaining ground and is within five points of incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, to whom he lost by more than seven points in a 2018 special election.

But Hyde-Smith’s campaign released its own internal poll later Thursday, reporting she has a 20-point lead, and her camp questioned the methodology and veracity of Espy’s poll. Many statewide and national politicos don’t consider the race to be competitive, and previous polling has shown the incumbent Republican with healthier leads in one of the reddest states in the country.

Espy is challenging Hyde-Smith in the November general election.

The Espy telephone poll of 600 likely Mississippi voters from July 30 to Aug. 9 reports Hyde-Smith leading with 47%, Espy with 42% and about 3% supporting a third party.

The survey is Espy’s best showing in released polling to date, and he discussed it on a national MSNBC show on Thursday morning.

“The ground is shifting here in Mississippi,” Espy said on MSNBC Thursday morning. “We recently saw it with the taking down of the Confederate flag. Most Mississippians now want to turn the page and move us toward progress … We’re closing the gap.”

The poll, which shows a margin of error of 4.1%, was conducted by Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group, a pollster for high profile Democrats around the nation like New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, and 2018 Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.

FiveThirtyEight, which rates national pollsters, gave the firm a B/C rating. 

In a release Thursday afternoon, the Hyde-Smith campaign said “the methodology is awful” on the poll Espy released. The campaign noted that a poll of 600 people should not have taken 10 days to complete, and said it “cherry picked” demographics among independents.

“(The poll) emphasizes that they are on track to lose by less this time,” the Hyde-Smith campaign wrote. “Not sure that’s much to brag about … Mississippi is not a state where you win by mobilizing independents. You win by turning out your base voters, which they admit Espy is failing to do.”

A May Public Policy Polling survey for the Mississippi Democratic Party showed Hyde-Smith leading Espy 49% to 41%, and a May poll by Impact Management Group for Y’all Politics showed Hyde-Smith leading 58% to 31%.

In 1986, Espy became the first African American elected to the U.S. House in Mississippi since Reconstruction and later served as U.S. secretary of agriculture in the Clinton administration. Hyde-Smith, first appointed to fill the Senate seat by Gov. Phil Bryant, in 2018 became the first woman elected to Congress from Mississippi.

This week’s Espy survey notes previous polls were conducted before protests across the country and in Mississippi over the police killing of George Floyd and the historic decision by Mississippi lawmakers to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag.

The Espy campaign is making race a major issue amid the national debate of racial inequities in government. The campaign has focused on comments Hyde-Smith made in 2018 about public hangings and has accused her of “glorifying Confederate symbols.” The November ballot will also include a referendum on replacing the Mississippi flag, predicted to be a factor in turnout and voting.

“We do have the numbers, and we can win,” Espy said. “We will not only take down the flag in November, we’re going to take out Confederate Cindy and send her back to the museum.”

Some other findings reported in the survey the Espy campaign released Thursday:

  • Espy is up by 8 points over Hyde-Smith with independent voters, and tied with Hyde-Smith among young white voters, aged 18-34.
  • Espy has about 85% support among Black voters.
  • Espy polled 40% positive, 22% negative; Hyde-Smith at 37% positive, 34% negative.
  • The poll included 35% Black likely voters, and its sample reported voting for President Trump in 2016 54% to 39%. Trump won in Mississippi in 2016 with 58%.

The Hyde-Smith campaign said: “A well-known African-American candidate who just ran last cycle should be getting more than 85% of the African-American vote.”

Espy’s pollsters also said “Donald Trump is weaker in Mississippi than he was in 2016,” saying he polled 53% to 43% versus a generic Democratic candidate. In 2016, Trump won Mississippi with 58%.

The Hyde-Smith campaign called this point “nonsensical.”

“If Trump wins Mississippi by 10 points, there are not many paths to victory for Espy,” the statement said. “It’s hard to imagine many, if any, voters deciding to vote for Trump and then on the next line of the ballot deciding to not vote for one of Trump’s best allies in the Senate.”

The survey Hyde-Smith released was conducted by the Republican pollster the Tarrance Group, and was also of 600 likely Mississippi voters. It was conducted from June 22-25, with a margin of error of 4.1%.

Tarrance has a FiveThirtyEight rating of B/C.

The poll reported:

  • Hyde-Smith with a favorable/unfavorable rating of 51%/35%, compared to Espy at 47%/33%.
  • Hyde-Smith with strong approval ratings among key blocs, such as seniors, 59%; conservatives, 64% and white voters, 70%.
  • Hyde-Smith with a higher lead margin than President Trump, who polled 55% to 40% against Joe Biden, and with 97% of Trump voters reporting they plan to vote for Hyde-Smith.

“(Espy’s) numbers are obviously an attempt by a failing campaign to manufacture press stories and to try to boost fundraising,” Hyde-Smith’s campaign said in a statement. “We don’t blame them for trying, but we think the results on Election Day will be most similar to our polling, just as happened in 2018.”

Espy campaign manager Joe O’Hern, in a statement said: “Things only keep getting worse for Sen. Hyde-Smith. After outraising her 3-to-1 and raising more in July than Hyde-Smith did the entire second quarter, momentum continues to build for Mike Espy … It is clear that Mississippians are tired of Hyde-Smith’s weak leadership and partisan political games ….”

The post Espy, Hyde-Smith campaigns release dueling polls in Mississippi Senate race appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Over half of Mississippi renters could face eviction during pandemic without help from Congress

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

Rodney Boss sits outside the house he rents in south Jackson while his fiance watched over their two children, aged 1 and 5, inside. One-and-a-half months behind on rent and his claim for unemployment stuck in investigations, Boss worries his family will soon face eviction in the middle of a pandemic.

Over half of Mississippi renters could face eviction during pandemic without protections from Congress

Data shows most renters were teetering before the pandemic, and much more rental assistance is needed to fill the gaps.

BY ANNA WOLFE | AUGUST 13, 2020

More than half of Mississippi’s roughly 352,000 renter households are at risk of eviction if Congress doesn’t extend protections for families struggling as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers estimated.

More than a third of all Mississippians said they missed last month’s rent or mortgage payment or believed they wouldn’t be able to pay the next on time, Census survey results show, making Mississippi the third most vulnerable state in the nation for housing.

By Thursday, Congress remained locked in stalemate over issuing more COVID-19 relief to states after crucial protections expired at the end of July, thrusting many families into greater economic uncertainty.

The state is doling out millions in rental assistance to people impacted by the virus, but the program’s current funding is a small fraction of what’s needed to keep people housed during this recession.

Eviction filings were fairly rare when Rachel Harris, newly appointed Lee County Justice Court Clerk, started working at the court nearly 20 years ago. She’d receive these removal requests from landlords maybe once or twice a week.

In more recent years, she said the court sees two or three each day among a population of about 85,000.

Some landlords in the county were so determined to oust tenants who had gotten behind on rent, even as the pandemic began, they shut off the lights in some units to compel them to leave. A judge ordered the owners to restore power after an emergency motion by the Mississippi Center for Justice, and a statewide eviction freeze took effect shortly after. The state’s moratorium lifted June 1.

“We had a lot of them (landlords) that were aggravated when they couldn’t do evictions during the shutdown and everything,” Harris said. “But I think since everything’s kind of opened back up and they’re allowing evictions now, it hasn’t really picked up any more.”

“They picked up basically where they left off,” she added.

Housing researchers say the existing housing affordability crisis is about to get much worse now that the people seeking unemployment benefits by late July — some 200,000 in Mississippi, according to the most recent U.S. Department of Labor data — have seen their weekly benefit drop to as low as $30.

“The problem feels like an iceberg. It feels like we see some of it, but there’s a much greater portion of the problem that’s under the surface that we don’t see yet,” Scott Spivey, executive director of the Mississippi Home Corporation, said in mid-July.

Renters, who are disproportionately low income-earners, have been harder hit by the pandemic because job and income losses caused by shutdowns are concentrated in industries employing lower wage workers, such as food service, entertainment and hospitality. Evictions also disproportionately affect Black Mississippians, who are overrepresented in low wage jobs and nearly three times as likely to live in poverty and to be unemployed than white people.

A little less than a third of the state’s population — 915,000 people — live in Mississippi’s 352,000 renter households. A study by global advisory firm Stout Risius Ross shows as high as 58% of those households are at risk of eviction. The national figure is about 43%.

By mid-July, more than a third of all Mississippians either missed their previous month’s rent or mortgage payment or believed they would not be able to make the next month’s payment on time, according to a weekly survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Based on these most recent survey results, Mississippi is the nation’s third most housing insecure state, behind just Texas and Louisiana. Nationwide, about a quarter of Americans said they faced this scenario.

Over half of Mississippians also said they had lost income through their work since March 13, just slightly more than the national average.

“If you’re not going to continue the boost in unemployment, there has to be a plan B to provide for basic necessities in the middle of a pandemic when a lot of people don’t have the choice to go back to work,” Spivey said. “They have to do something. And being paralyzed by indecision is going to leave a lot of people in a really bad situation.”

Most renters in Mississippi were already teetering, spending more than 30% of their income on housing before the pandemic screeched the economy to a halt in March. This is increasingly the case as housing costs continue to rise while wages stagnate.

As a result, thousands are evicted every year — resulting in hasty moves, lost belongings, displaced family members and homelessness. In Jackson, the capital city, between seven and eight families are evicted from their homes every day, according to 2016 data, the most recent available, gathered by the Princeton University-based research group the Eviction Lab. Of all large cities in the nation, it had the fifth highest eviction rate that year.

While Congress continues to negotiate the details of the next stimulus package, President Donald Trump issued an order on Saturday indicating he would consider extending the federal eviction moratorium, which expired July 25, but it only applies to renters living in federally subsidized housing.

He also ordered to continue a boost to unemployment benefits by $400-a-week, down from $600. But because Trump is requiring that states pay 25% of the supplement, Gov. Tate Reeves said he wasn’t sure if Mississippi would participate.

In an earlier relief package, the federal government offered states almost $3 billion in rental assistance grants to cover the gaps for people who found themselves unable to afford rent due to the pandemic. Mississippi initially received $8 million — which it began administering through three housing programs in northern, central and southern regions of the state in late June — and then another $10 million.

Housing advocates say these programs provide the maximum benefit by keeping tenants housed and landlords financially secure, preventing the hefty back-end costs of evictions and homelessness.

But it will take at least $100 million to meet the enormous need across the state, researchers estimate.

Many landlords say they’re committed to working with tenants who are struggling and have shown an attempt to pay. Becky Ivison, who owns about 1,200 units across the state, said some renters were confused by the moratorium, believing they did not have to pay rent during those months. Now they’re several months behind, but Ivison said her property managers have set up payment plans as opposed to rushing the tenants out.

“Our goal is not to have to process any evictions,” Ivison said. “These people are trying to get back to work, trying to take care of their families … the last thing that they need is for us to have to process an eviction.”

The organizations administering rental assistance also say they’re communicating with landlords so they know how to direct their tenants to seek help.

By July 31, these organizations had received 2,934 calls, were processing 2,037 applications and had committed just $342,500 to needy renters. The program typically covers an approved applicant’s rent for three months, unless they become ineligible in the meantime. And they must demonstrate they are short on rent because of the pandemic.

While the state has issued grants to small businesses, paid for broadband expansion and distance learning and funded colleges and workforce development, advocates argue it has done little to enact protections or direct aid to families facing hardships to ensure they can continue to support themselves.

“The Mississippi Legislature looked fully at institutional needs and kind of ignored basic household needs in their allocation of coronavirus relief funds and are leaving it up to the federal government to make sure that families have a roof over their head and food on their plate,” John Sullivan, a policy director with national affordable housing nonprofit Enterprise Community Partners Gulf Coast, said.

Enterprise estimates it will cost between $107 million to $194 million to provide rental assistance to Mississippi households who will need it between now and the new year. The cost is between $196 million to $408 million to cover rents through July 2021, based on unemployment projections from the Congressional Budget Office and average rent costs.

According to these estimations, unemployment impacted roughly 80,000 renter households in April and will continue to impact around 50,000 well into 2021.

Mississippians in need of rental assistance should contact the Continuum of Care program covering their region: Central Mississippi Continuum of Care (769-237-1012) covers Hinds, Rankin, Madison, Warren and Copiah counties; Open Doors Homeless Coalition (228-604-2048) covers Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Pearl River, Stone and George counties and Mississippi United to End Homelessness (601-960-0557) covers the rest of the state.

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