by Maya Miller, Mississippi Today
June 17, 2025

Tucked away in west Jackson right off Capers Avenue are the remains of what used to be housing for people transitioning out of the Mississippi State Hospital. Now, it’s fallen into disrepair, its brick building crumbling and overcome by plastic waste and graffiti. 

Putalamus “Tala” White, executive director of the Jackson Resource Center, has a vision for the space and what it could become for people who are experiencing homelessness. 

“Almost the entire street is 18 acres, and on this end is where the tiny homes are gonna be,” she said, pointing to an overgrown patch of weeds and debris. “Then on down, you got the rest of the campus.” 

This spot, supposedly the future home of The Junction, is the place where White intends to build a village of 80 tiny homes and a community hub. But the project has been delayed after White’s organization received less funding than it anticipated. 

In 2021, the city of Jackson accepted just over $3 million in HOME Investment Partnerships – American Rescue Plan (HOME-ARP) Program funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Those funds are dedicated toward reducing homelessness. 

In September of 2023, the city published a request for proposals for the Safe Space: Safe Place tiny home development, a 30 unit pallet shelter village. Jackson Resource Center was the only respondent, said Melissa Payne, Director of Constituent Services and Communications. 

On February 13, 2024, the city allocated an amount “not to exceed $2.87 million” of those HOME-ARP funds to the Jackson Resource Center. 

But last month, the Jackson Resource Center received a memorandum of understanding from the city of Jackson for just over $1 million.

“Since approval, the City and JRC have worked with HUD to draft a compliant Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). However, JRC repeatedly altered its plans — doubling costs, expanding to 80 units, purchasing modular homes from China at significantly larger sizes, and proposing rental use—changes far beyond the scope of the original RFP, and created additional HUD compliance issues,” Payne said. “In May, the City offered JRC an MOU with $1,086,440 in funding and access to additional grants if needed. Despite this, JRC is now demanding a $2.5 million guarantee to begin the project.”

Jackson Resource Center issued a statement in response to “correct the record for the sake of public trust, our partners, and—most importantly—the hundreds of unhoused individuals in Jackson still waiting on relief.”

“…While the modular homes are comparable in cost to earlier models, it is the site infrastructure—sewer, water, electrical, environmental remediation, and ADA compliance – that represents most of the budget increase,” the statement reads. “These are unavoidable costs that have continued to rise over the past year and a half we’ve been waiting.”

Jackson Resource Center secured an additional award of $2 million from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas for a project involving 80 homes, hence the expansion from the original proposal, the statement said.

“This was a net gain for the City, not a deviation,” the statement reads.

White said JRC can’t make any movement on The Junction because the lender won’t disperse its funds until the city of Jackson does. 

“When we wrote that grant to the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas, it was as a subsidy to the original grant. So we can’t do everything that we proposed to do with the Federal Home Loan Bank until we have those funds as well.”

While the organization hasn’t received any of the city funding for the tiny home project so far, it has received over $350,000 from the city in the last two years for other programming, including workforce development and operation of its permanent supportive housing campus called Langley. 

Now, White said she’s waiting to meet with the city’s new administration and gain what she said are necessary funds to start work on the development.

“That’s where we are, hoping that after the new administration gets in office, we can sit down, have a conversation, and finally get this ball rolling,” she said.

The Junction, a multi-phase project, includes the tiny homes and the creation of a community complex complete with a pet kennel, a medical wing, a detox center, post office and a food court. White hopes that in creating The Junction, she’ll cultivate a safe space where people who are experiencing homelessness can have a place to thrive.

“Having all of those services right there in the community on the campus would assist in them changing their mindset,” she said. “We’ve got to come in and be able to give them the help they need to get back on the right track.”

The Junction project has many detractors in local government, some of whom said the creation of the tiny homes will lead to more homeless people in Jackson. Jackson’s city council was divided on the vote 4-3, with Ward 1 Councilman Ashby Foote, Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes and Ward 5 Councilman Vernon Hartley voting against the project.

 ”We need to have a program in the city with a coordinator that can coordinate with nonprofits to help manage this issue, but just to create 60 homes? That’s one more thing for other municipalities to do with the shuffling them off on Jackson, because now it’s like we got another program,” Hartley said in an interview with Mississippi Today back in February. “Build it and they will come. Build it and municipalities will send them to Jackson.” 

White said that she’s tried to have conversations with city leaders about the project, and a few have understood her vision. She points to unaffordable housing as one of the leading factors in Jackson’s homelessness statistics. 

“You say you don’t want the homeless in the community. You say we’re gonna bring more homeless people into the community, but they are already here and if we don’t give them somewhere to go and something productive to do to help, then it’s not gonna change,” she said.

According to the annual Point in Time Count, a national census of homeless populations, Mississippi has one of the lowest rates of homelessness, though some advocates have said the local count is likely artificially low. White agreed that in the downtown area, there may be close to 1,000 homeless individuals. 

“My biggest hope is that this campus will be a light in Jackson and that it will assist individuals that feel like they’ve been forgotten, and that it will assist the city as a whole in being able to bring more revenue to the city, so that we can be a thriving city so that we can take care of the least of these. We have to take care of the least of these,” White said.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Tiny homes project for Jackson’s homeless delayed due to funding appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

The article presents a generally sympathetic view of the Jackson Resource Center’s efforts to build a tiny home village for the homeless, emphasizing the organization’s vision, the hardships caused by delayed funding, and the structural issues impeding progress. It highlights systemic barriers such as infrastructure costs, unaffordable housing, and city-level political opposition. While the city’s explanation for the funding reduction is included, the framing leans toward amplifying the perspective of project proponents, particularly Tala White. The article’s tone and narrative structure reflect concern for social equity and housing advocacy, aligning with a center-left perspective on homelessness and urban policy.

by Kate Royals, Mississippi Today
June 17, 2025

Marla Demita could hear the screams of her 9-month-old son as soon as she entered Little Blessings Daycare in Yazoo City. When she got to the room where he was kept, baby Dean was crying inconsolably – unusual behavior for him.

She said that most days, Dean “lights up” with a smile when he sees her. But on the afternoon of May 20, “it’s like he looked straight through me, like he didn’t know who I was.” 

The troubling behavior escalated that night. Demita shared a video with Mississippi Today that showed her husband Johnathon holding Dean while standing, bouncing up and down to try to comfort their child. But Dean screamed and thrashed from side to side. After a call with his pediatrician offered no solutions, the parents took Dean to the Children’s of Mississippi hospital in Jackson. 

Dean jerked his head from side to side and screamed the entire hour and a half drive from their home, another video shows.

A drug test administered at the hospital showed Dean had methamphetamine in his system. A doctor told Demita the baby had ingested the substance somewhere between noon and 4 p.m., she told Mississippi Today. Dean was at Little Blessings Daycare during that time.

The Mississippi Department of Health, which is responsible for regulating and licensing day care centers, fined Little Blessings $50 after the incident. The agency could not confirm the baby ingested methamphetamine while at day care, according to its investigative report.

The department cited Little Blessings because the center’s director, Lisa Martin, did not report what happened as required by agency regulations. Martin did not respond to questions for this article. 

Demita said the $50 fine felt like a “punch in the gut” after what happened to her son, who is now 10 months old.

She said he screamed as though in terrible pain from 7:45 p.m. on the day of the incident until 4 the next morning.

“And I’m not talking about fussy crying. I’m talking about blood curling screams,” Demita said. “It was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.”

The Health Department did not respond to Mississippi Today’s detailed questions about the investigation into the incident and past allegations of abuse at Little Blessings. Two complaints filed with the agency in 2023 and 2024 accused workers and the director of “whooping” and hitting children and locking them in dark rooms.

Mississippi Today obtained the documents detailing the earlier allegations through a public records request. None are available on the Health Department’s public database, a tool parents can use to research a child care facility’s history. It is unclear why. 

The Health Department launched the database following a 2016 investigation by The Hechinger Report and The Clarion-Ledger found that, unlike other states, Mississippi had no such system. 

The agency submitted a statement to Mississippi Today by email calling what happened to Dean “distressing” to both the Demita family and others, and said it is coordinating with law enforcement and the state Department of Child Protection Services. 

“Consequently, the investigation and determination of abuse or neglect by a caregiver fall under the authority of those agencies,” the statement said. “Our goal is to ensure that children are safe in licensed childcare programs.”

When the Demitas arrived at the emergency room with Dean, the baby was inconsolable and “tachycardic,” or had an irregularly fast heart rhythm, records state. 

The medical staff thought he had a fracture and checked him for hair tourniquet – a painful condition that occurs when a piece of hair wraps tightly around a baby’s finger, toe or other body part, restricting blood flow. 

“Patient placed in C-collar. Patient cried for the upwards of 4 hours straight,” the records say. 

The hospital emergency room ran a battery of tests, including a drug screen. Dean’s initial screen came back positive for amphetamines.

A follow-up confirmation drug test, a more specific and accurate screen, was ordered. Demita received results of that test about a week later, which showed the baby tested positive for methamphetamine, a lab-made stimulant commonly known as crystal meth. The drug can cause paranoia, anxiety, rapid heart rate, irregular heartbeat or death. 

Dean stayed in the hospital about 12 hours. Before he was released, Marla and Johnathon Demita submitted to drug screens themselves, and medical records show those were negative. 

His mother said for the next week, Dean remained irritable and had little appetite. 

She has since pulled Dean out of day care altogether. He is an active and crawling baby, and he spends the day with Demita at a veterinary clinic where she is the office manager. She said it is stressful. 

“So, I’m having to do my everyday job and keep up with a child all day from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.,” she said. “He has to sit in a playpen 90% of the day.”

Day care’s corrective plan involves ‘shoe coverings’

The Health Department’s investigation consisted of interviews with the day care director and caregivers, according to records obtained by Mississippi Today. Two investigators with the  Health Department also noted they reviewed pictures of formula and breastmilk bottles in the facility refrigerator.

Notes showed the day care did not have cameras in the rooms, which surprised Yazoo City Police Department officers who came to the facility. 

The Little Blessings director, Martin, told health officials a police officer told her “it could be something as (sic) a someone coming into the classroom and has residue on their shoes,” Health Department records show. The director would be “purchasing shoe coverings for individuals” that enter and exit the infant room as part of its corrective plan approved by the agency, the records say. 

Health Department officials did not answer Mississippi Today’s questions about whether the agency reached out to the baby’s medical team, other parents of children at the facility or former employees of Little Blessings.

Demita said after she told the Health Department what happened to her son, she did not hear back from anyone at the agency.

Yazoo City Police Chief Terry Gann on June 11 said the investigation continues, but he had been unable to reach Demita. After Mississippi Today relayed Gann’s cell phone number to Demita, the two met the next day to discuss the case.

Gann was unaware of past allegations of abuse against the day care, and told Mississippi Today the day care was closed down. A photo taken of the facility on June 12 around 5 p.m. showed what appears to be parents picking up children.

Health Department records contain two complaints accusing the day care workers and director of abuse in 2023 and 2024. 

“They hit children on the hands and butts and grab them very roughly,” said a March 2023 complaint from a former employee of Little Blessings. 

Another complaint accused employees of locking children in dark rooms. The agency, after interviewing the employees and director, could not substantiate either complaint. 

However, video footage later received by the Health Department revealed a day care teacher threatening to bite a child, and Martin, the director, was heard referencing “the ones that do get spanked.” The documents do not specify whether the video footage was from the facility’s cameras or if someone submitted footage to the agency.

Martin did not respond to Mississippi Today’s questions about Demita’s son and past allegations against her and other employees of the day care, including one asking what she meant by her statement. 

The facility’s corrective action included holding a meeting with caregivers about not hitting or spanking children. The Health Department provided “technical assistance” to the day care on discipline and positive redirection, according to records. 

No fine or other action was administered, records show.

Demita continues keeping her son by her side at work. 

“I’m taking it day by day,” she said. “I know he won’t be going back to a day care.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Baby tests positive for meth after day in child care appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This article by *Mississippi Today* presents a detailed, emotionally charged account of a deeply troubling incident involving a baby testing positive for methamphetamine after attending a daycare. While the reporting focuses on a single family’s experience, it also critically examines the Mississippi Department of Health’s response and historical oversight failures. The tone leans toward advocacy journalism, aiming to hold public institutions accountable and highlight systemic weaknesses. However, it does not promote partisan viewpoints or ideologies directly. The article’s focus on regulatory shortcomings and child safety aligns with center-left journalistic tendencies emphasizing public welfare and institutional reform.

by Jasymin Shepherd, Mississippi Today
June 17, 2025

Editor’s note: This essay is part of Mississippi Today Ideas, a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share fact-based ideas about our state’s past, present and future. You can read more about the section here.

More than two months have passed since Converge, Mississippi’s sole Title X (“ten”) family planning grantee, had its federal funding withheld — and already, communities across the state are feeling the strain.

More than 90 clinics in Mississippi receive funding from the Title X family planning program to provide care to people in need. However, on April 1, Converge, a Mississippi non-profit, was notified by the US Department of Health and Human Services that the grantee’s Title X funding was being withheld while the agency reviews Converge’s compliance with President Trump’s recent executive orders.

As a patient advocate and someone who has personally relied on Title X-funded services for care, I’ve seen firsthand the difference these clinics make. For many, they are the first—and sometimes only—place to turn to for timely, affordable reproductive health care like birth control, STI testing and treatment, cancer screenings, infertility counseling and more. Today, that care hangs in the balance. 

I still remember walking into a Title X clinic at a pivotal moment in my life — uncertain and in need. There, I received not only essential care but also compassionate counseling from providers who treated me with dignity. With Title X-funded providers already forced to stretch scarce dollars, my experience reinforced their critical role in filling a growing need for care across communities.

For so many in Mississippi, these clinics are more than a health care provider. They represent a place of safety and trust.

With Title X funding on hold across the entire state since April 1, providers are working tirelessly to stay open. But the reality is, without critical support made possible by Title X, clinics are being forced to charge for services that were once free or at reduced cost. And for patients, that often means delaying care—or going without it altogether.

These decisions have real consequences. Mississippi already faces the highest maternal mortality rate in the country, with Black women disproportionately affected. Access to preventive, affordable care can help address these disparities — but only if that care remains available.

The Title X program plays a vital role in Mississippi’s health care safety net. Clinics funded by Title X serve thousands of Mississippians every year — many of whom live in rural areas, are uninsured or face other barriers to care. When funding is disrupted or withheld, the impact is felt immediately. It becomes harder for providers to keep their doors open. Staff members face layoffs. And patients lose access to the care they’ve come to rely on. 

At Converge, so much progress has been made over the years to create reliable access points to care. The organization has built a statewide provider network grounded in excellent, expanded care into underserved areas through telehealth and clinicians trained in providing patient-centered care. But that progress has now come to an abrupt halt. 

I recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to share my story with members of the Mississippi congressional delegation and highlight the extraordinary role that the Title X program plays in people’s lives. Because behind every clinic, every program and every policy are real people — people whose lives and futures depend on continued access to care.

That’s why I’m urging Congress and the Trump administration to act quickly to restore Title X funding. Now more than ever, this program is essential to keeping our communities healthy and strong. 

Mississippians deserve reliable access to the care they need to thrive and stay healthy. I hope leaders at every level will listen and respond with the urgency this moment calls for. Lives — and livelihoods — are on the line. 

Jasymin Shepherd is a patient advocate with Converge and a kinesiology adjunct instructor at Hinds Community College in Raymond. She also in the past sought care in a Title X-funded setting.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Family planning services for many Mississippians remain in jeopardy appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This essay reflects a Center-Left bias through its advocacy for restoring federal Title X funding and its emphasis on the lived experiences of patients reliant on reproductive health services. The author critiques policy changes tied to the Trump administration and appeals to Congress and the current administration to take corrective action. While fact-based, the language is emotionally resonant and aligned with progressive positions on public health and reproductive rights. The narrative prioritizes access to care, equity, and the needs of underserved communities, indicating a perspective more typical of center-left health policy advocacy.