Jackson Says Mississippi Home Corporation Will Match $3.1 Million for Homeward JXN. The Agency’s Own Manual Caps Those Grants at $750,000.
The city announced a full $3.1 million match in four installments. Mississippi Home Corporation’s published manual caps supportive services at $300,000 and rental assistance at $500,000 per applicant.
Jackson’s press release says the Mississippi Home Corporation will match the city’s $3.1 million for Homeward JXN in four installments of about $775,000. The agency’s own application manual sets a much lower ceiling on the two grant programs the money would come from.
The 2024 HOME-ARP Application Manual, posted on mshomecorp.com, says agencies can request between $75,000 and $300,000 for Supportive Services and between $100,000 and $500,000 for Tenant Based Rental Assistance. That is $800,000 for an applicant that maxes out both. MHC Vice President of Communications Rivers Aultman told the Clarion Ledger the maximums available to Jackson total $750,000: up to $500,000 for supportive services and up to $250,000 for rental assistance.
The gap between $3.1 million and $750,000 is $2.35 million. The city’s four installments of $775,000 each are roughly 2.6 times the $300,000 supportive services cap in the manual, and each one is larger than the entire $750,000 the agency says it can approve.
Aultman’s account of the sequence is that MHC met with city officials on Sept. 18 and explained the caps then. Jackson submitted its application Oct. 2, after a window the agency reopened specifically for the city. Aultman said the application is still under review, no funding recommendations have been made, and the matter has to go to the MHC board, which she said the agency would try to put before the board at its November meeting.
Mayor John Horhn told the council on Oct. 20 that the city had committed about $3.1 million in HOME-ARP funds and expected a match, and that the program needed another $5 million. “We are doing outreach right now to the business community, the foundation community, to see if we can come up with the rest of the money,” Horhn said, according to WLBT. Two days later, city communications director Nic Lott said MHC “remains committed to providing $3.1 million in HOME-ARP funding.”
The reimbursement terms matter as much as the amount. Under the city’s description, Jackson pays eligible costs up front and submits documentation for each $775,000 installment. Aultman described the same structure. For a program whose budget is mostly rent, that means the city carries the cash flow, and any installment the agency declines to reimburse lands on the city’s books.
The city’s own numbers show how thin the margin is. Council documents reported by the Clarion Ledger show about $2.04 million of Jackson’s $2.2 million HOME-ARP allocation going to rent and utility deposits for roughly 200 people, at an average of $850 a month. HUD’s HOME-ARP allocation table lists Jackson’s entitlement at $3,195,726. The city has also spent $80,000 on a Clutch Consulting design contract and $220,000 over two years with the Mississippi Housing Partnership, paid in monthly installments of $9,166.66, according to WLBT.
The program is already running. Horhn said four people are enrolled, and Planning and Development Director Angela Brown said the city had identified its first encampment and made rehousing offers to the four people living there. The city’s release says the combined $6.2 million allows full implementation while the remaining $3.8 million is raised over two years. That arithmetic assumes the $3.1 million arrives in full.
What’s next: The Mississippi Home Corporation board meets on the second Wednesday of each month at noon, which puts the next regular meeting at 735 Riverside Drive on Nov. 11, 2026, unless the agency approves an alternative schedule. Aultman said MHC would try to bring Jackson’s application before the board in November. Watch whether the board acts on $750,000 or on the $3.1 million the city announced, and whether the city’s release is corrected. The council’s next regular meeting is posted at jacksonms.gov, where the agenda and packet appear before the vote.
The city has not said publicly where the $3.8 million balance would come from beyond general outreach to businesses and foundations, and no document reviewed for this article names a donor or a deadline for raising it.