The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a federal complaint against Mississippi to stop the state from misusing and withholding federal funds provided by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to the city of Jackson to address its ongoing water crisis. The suit argues Mississippi refused to allocate these funds when the city needed them most to improve its aging water system and infrastructure and, most recently, to address the resulting housing crisis.
In May 2021, Mississippi received $450 million in ARPA funds, with wide discretion to use the money for water and sewer infrastructure and to assist in relocation efforts for displaced residents and businesses. Jackson’s water crisis began in August 2022. Since then, residents have endured water shutoffs and expensive utility bills as well as housing displacements due to lack of available running water. In the decades leading up to the crisis, the city’s infrastructure had been largely underfunded, despite consistent requests from city leaders for state assistance to repair its water system.
In 2022, one year after Mississippi received its ARPA funds, the state created a grant competition to allocate funds to cities and municipalities. The SPLC suit accuses Mississippi of creating a program that was clearly biased against Jackson, creating financial guidelines the state knew the city could not meet. For example, Jackson’s ARPA funds came with a matching requirement that was later waived for most applicants. The state calculated Jackson’s assistance by considering primarily the amount of assistance the city could provide for itself rather than its amount of need.
Despite Jackson’s well-documented need for more than $1 billion to repair its water, sewage and storm infrastructure, Mississippi awarded the city $35.6 million in funds under its biased matching system. Those funds have since been held by the Mississippi State Treasury with no clear guidance on what the city must do to obtain its share of money. No other city in the state had its ARPA award withheld. Jackson residents are still awaiting the relief and assistance they have been denied by the state of Mississippi.
The SPLC suit was filed in the United States District Court in the Southern District of Mississippi Northern Division.
