MFP Voices
Opinion | Biloxi and Gulfport Face Imminent Homelessness Crisis
Columnist Leo Carney is visiting the growing homeless community in Biloxi and Gulfport, Miss.
Leo Carney
October 20, 2023
Columnist Leo Carney is visiting the growing homeless community in Biloxi and Gulfport, Miss.
Gulf Coast Housing Partnership CEO Kathy Laborde says that embedding health care on sites like The Pearl will result in better health outcomes for Mississippians.
The City of Biloxi approved funding for the beautification of the Bayou Auguste community. Biloxi native Demetrius Gayden completed several revitalization projects in East Biloxi.
HR 3339, a current bill in Congress, would create a $5-trillion National Infrastructure Bank to finance projects that federal, state and local governments cannot. This plan would allow Mississippi to receive up to $47 billion over 10 years to cover all infrastructure improvements, including roads, bridges, levees and dams, affordable housing, public transport and more, Alphecca Muttardy writes.
The YouthBuild program first started in 1997 after the Department of Labor provided funding to West Jackson CDC, a private nonprofit, which serves as an entity for community-based leadership and revitalization of the community surrounding Jackson State University.
Dr. Karla McCullough, executive director of the Juanita Sims Doty Foundation, says Mississippi should embed core “humanizing factors” into our varying service support systems to improve relations and engagement within our communities, especially communities of color.
The Oktibbeha County Chancery Court has given residents like Elecia Brooks one last reprieve from eviction, a move activists hope will give them enough time to secure affordable housing. But larger problems in Mississippi’s housing market loom over the paused evictions.
Across Mississippi, more than 41 percent of all renters are cost-burdened, defined by the Department of Housing and Urban Development as paying more than 30 percent of household income toward housing costs and, as a result, having “difficulty affording necessities such as food, clothing, transportation and medical care.” More than one out of every five renter households in Mississippi is extremely cost-burdened, defined as paying more than 50 percent of household income toward housing costs.
Calandra Davis’ work as a policy analyst at the Hope Policy Institute in Jackson focuses on topics including affordable housing, banking access and debt, issues she also encounters as an activist. She believes elections should lead to real change for those who need it most.
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