People

Myth: Affordable housing occupants are outsiders
Fact: Affordable housing occupants are community members trying to secure or maintain dignified housing in our neighborhoods.

• Individuals and families remain in temporary housing situations or remain cost burdened in their current homes because of a range of factors, including the imbalance between wages and housing costs as well as the general lack of diverse affordable housing options.
• The Mississippi Coast has a long history of diversity in its neighborhoods and cultures, and residents who require affordable housing now have been our neighbors for years. Their work sustains our service-based economy, and so these families’ ability to be affordably housed is critical to our communities’ overall health.

Myth: Affordable housing occupants are unemployed and welfare dependent.
Fact: Affordable housing occupants are working class individuals and families.

• Comprehensive tenant selection process utilizes standardized intake procedures and collects extensive documentation on applicants, including background and credit checks.
• Affordable housing occupants hold mortgages or pay rent and also pay taxes.
• Active property management companies ensure that tenants of rental units maintain their properties.
• A household would need to make $15.60 per hour, or $32,440 annually, to afford the fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the Gulfport-Biloxi MSA. This translates to 2.7 full-time jobs earning minimum wage. (Source: NLIHC)
• The local workforce needed by small business owners does not currently exist, largely because this workforce lacks adequate housing in proximity to these jobs.

Myth: Affordable housing is comprised of renters with transient tenants who do not maintain their properties.
Fact: Affordable housing can be either rental or homeownership units.

• 53% of recipients of direct housing assistance from FEMA were homeowners when Katrina struck, and only 1% had previously received housing assistance. (Source: FEMA)
• Both renters and homeowners require affordable housing, defined as housing that costs less than 30% of a household’s annual income.
• In rental housing, extensive property maintenance is provided.

Myth: Everyone who wants to rebuild their home has already done so.
Fact: Tens of thousands of Mississippi residents have been unable to rebuild and so remain in temporary housing situations.

• More than 60% of Harrison County’s housing units were damaged by Katrina. This includes nearly 30,000 owner-occupied and 7,000 rental units. (Source: Rand)
• According to FEMA, 22,675 people in Mississippi still receive housing assistance. Although thousands of community members have returned to their homes, more needs to be done for those who remain displaced in FEMA trailers or other inadequate housing situations. (Source: FEMA)
• Across Mississippi, approximately 46,000 building permits have been issued since Katrina, compared to 77,000 total damaged housing units. (Source: Rand)
• 218 units (4%) of a total of 5,624 units awarded GO Zone tax credits in the lower three counties have been built and occupied since Hurricane Katrina (Source: Mississippi Home Corporation and Back Bay Mission straw poll of municipal and county code offices, 2008).