Mississippi aid program gave little help to renters but millions to a top law firm

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Business

Mississippi aid program gave little help to renters but millions to a top law firm

Balch & Bingham’s earnings show how states — under pressure to distribute funds — can end up giving no-bid contracts to firms with close political ties

By Jonathan O'Connell and Yeganeh Torbati
Yesterday at 5:22 p.m. EDT

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Across America, state distribution of federal cash meant to help people facing eviction during the pandemic has been uneven and slow. But Mississippi’s program has been one of the more problematic. More than seven months after Congress and former president Donald Trump created the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, Mississippi had spent only 11 percent of $186.7 million in first-round funding according to the Treasury Department, compared with a national average of 32 percent.

Mississippians are clamoring for the funds: 9,000 people applied to the program in August, up nearly 130 percent from the entire period from March 29 to July 31, said Scott Spivey, executive director of the Mississippi Home Corporation (MHC), the state’s quasi-governmental housing agency charged with running the program.

But tenants and local advocates say it can take more than a month to get a response from the program, which is administered in part by Balch & Bingham, a politically connected Alabama law firm. Hired through a no-bid $3.8 million contract by MHC, Balch & Bingham plays a key role in reviewing and scrutinizing aid applications, a process critics say leads to enormous delays.

[Millions in U.S. lose jobless benefits as unemployment aid expires, thrusting families and economy onto uncertain path]

Aid applicants and advocates say these delays are a primary reason the program has failed to reach more people. And they question the selection of the law firm, which also represents landlords in tenant disputes and says on its website that “commercial landlords look to Balch for representation in evicting tenants and collecting unpaid rent.”

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Alice Crites and Alyssa Fowers contributed to this report.

By Jonathan O'Connell
Jonathan O'Connell is a reporter focused on business investigations and corporate accountability. He has covered economic development, commercial real estate and President Donald Trump's business. He joined The Post in 2010. Twitter https://twitter.com/jocwapo

By Yeganeh Torbati
Yeganeh Torbati joined The Washington Post in 2020 as a reporter investigating the tax, budget, trade and regulatory decisions made by Washington’s power brokers. Twitter https://twitter.com/yjtorbati

[Turbineguy]

1. So it was working as designed.