Biloxi and Harrison County could further restrict where homeless people can rest by removing a shade pavilion on the Harrison County Sand Beach and preventing unhoused people from resting under bridges, the mayor and Biloxi City Council said at an Aug. 5 city meeting.
Biloxi Mayor FoFo Gilich said he had been communicating about how to remove homeless people from the beach with Harrison County District 1 Supervisor Dan Cuevas, District 2 Supervisor Nathan Barrett and Harrison County Sand Beach Director Trey McKnight. They noted that a group of homeless people rest under the shade pavilion between the Interstate-10 loop and the lighthouse parking area on Harrison County Sand Beach.
“It’s just not right that we have to remove a facility to keep them from gathering underneath it,” Gilich said at the meeting.
Harrison County Public Information Officer Valerie DeMatties told the Mississippi Free Press on Aug. 12 that “there is no timeline” for removing the pavilion, nor can she confirm that the County will even take down the pavilion.
Biloxi has the Micah Day Center, where unhoused people can rest during the day, but it is not open on nights or weekends. Back Bay Mission Executive Director Rev. James Pennington told the Mississippi Free Press that the center also is not big enough to accommodate all of the unhoused people in the area. The City and State do not provide any funding for the shelter; he said donations fuel the shelter’s work.
“We have an issue on the beach,” Gilich said at the meeting. “Most of the folks that go to the day center sleep on the beach. OK. And we’ve been working with the sheriff and the county to have an ability—because we can’t arrest those folks on the beach after 10 o’clock, but we will be able to.”
DeMatties told the Mississippi Free Press on Aug. 12 that the sheriff’s department “would not arrest anyone” who was on the beach overnight “unless they were committing a crime.” Instead, officers would encourage people not to remain on the beach overnight because “it is unlawful to camp on the beach” under a new law that prohibits camping in public places.
The Mississippi Free Press reached out to the mayor’s office for more information on Aug. 11, and the receptionist told this reporter to contact Biloxi’s public affairs office, but the Mississippi Free Press was not able to get in touch with that office.
‘Tearing It Down Won’t Really Change the Situation’
Burgess, who is unhoused, was resting under the pavilion on the late afternoon of Aug. 12. Instead of tearing down the pavilion, he argued for building more shaded areas.
“Why not just build 10 more pavilions? Won’t have to worry about us taking one up if they just build more. (It’s) not like homeless people will claim every one. We’re already here,” Burgess told the Mississippi Free Press on Aug. 12.
He expressed frustration that rather than improve the infrastructure for everyone’s use, the City and County would rather just take away a resource instead.
“What they need to do is put some money in and make it nicer for everyone,” Burgess said.
Matt Dylan was also sitting under the pavilion on Aug. 12. He said that if the local government removed the pavilion, he would “probably” still rest in the same spot.
“Them tearing it down won’t really change the situation, you know? I’ll still be homeless.”
Every unhoused person gathered under the pavilion expressed frustration toward other people being disrespectful toward homeless people. Some of them said the City should focus on crime prevention and infrastructure repairs instead of policing where homeless people can rest. The City needs to directly intervene to help homeless people get off the streets, they all said.
The group resting under the pavilion all repeatedly emphasized that they were not bad people who made bad decisions because anyone could end up homeless by missing a paycheck or two.
‘It’s Really About Acknowledging Their Humanness’
The nearest shade other than the pavilion on the beach is the covering on the other side of the road by the Biloxi Visitors Center, which Pennington said unhoused people are not allowed to visit. He said some unhoused people rest under trees, but police officers often tell them to move along.
“It’s really about acknowledging their humanness and our humanness, that they’re human and they deserve shade just like anybody else. And after all, we have, like, almost 30 miles of beaches, so it doesn’t kind of make sense to take it down,” Pennington told the Mississippi Free Press on Aug. 11. “It’s surprising. I want to have a conversation with the mayor about it because I don’t think it honors the people that are unsheltered.”
Aside from the pavilion, Biloxi Ward 2 City Councilman Anthony Marshall also said during the Aug. 5 meeting that he instructed Police Chief John Miller and his officers to tell homeless people to move along instead of camping out under the Division Street bridge.
“When you’re coming off of Interstate-110 into Division Street, right up under that bridge, there’s always someone sleeping on the sidewalk or laying out. That’s not very welcoming to come into the City of Biloxi, and if someone could, like, look at that for me and address it, (then) I think we’re going to be OK if we get that fixed,” the Ward 2 councilman said at the meeting.
Back Bay Mission Helps Local Unhoused Community
Back Bay Mission has a food pantry, helps find housing for homeless people in Biloxi and Harrison County and supports people at risk of losing housing by paying rent and utilities. James Pennington said the organization’s resources are limited due to funding. Back Bay Mission hosts quarterly town halls where members of the public come together to talk about solutions for helping homeless people.
Homeless people would not have to rest outside in public places if Harrison County or the City of Biloxi built and funded an overnight shelter with help from the State, Pennington said.
“I think part of it is to make it so difficult for unsheltered people who live in the area that they just go elsewhere. Well, that’s not going to happen because they don’t have the resources to go elsewhere,” he said.
Pennington said the City of Biloxi, Harrison County and the State of Mississippi need to add more affordable housing and housing programs. Biloxi has four housing programs that have a limited number of spots and a tight budget, he added. Affordable apartments are also desperately needed in Biloxi because he said landlords are renovating cheaper apartments and upping the rent.
“Don’t punish them for being unsheltered if they need a place to stay. And I know some people are really intimidated by the unsheltered or feel that they are dangerous, but very honestly, they’re not. We work with them every day here. They’re not dangerous; they may approach you for money, you just have to say no,” Pennington said.
