(Ricky Salsberry)

The Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the state of Mississippi to appropriate $132.8 million in primarily HUD supplemental disaster recovery Community Development Block Grant funds to support long-term recovery along the post-Katrina Mississippi Gulf Coast. The agreement also requires the state to conduct an outreach campaign for the Neighborhood Home program in nine southern Mississippi counties. The agreement stems from a 2008 lawsuit filed by the Mississippi NAACP, Mississippi Center for Justice, and Gulf Coast Housing Advocates claiming that Mississippi “improperly redirected $570 million in housing funds toward the restoration and expansion of the State Port at Gulfport.”