Jackson Free Press

Many foundations have stepped up to help improve the lives of the people of Jackson in the last year, Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba said at his state of the city address Thursday.

He highlighted the W.K. Kellogg, Robert Wood Johnson, Kauffman, Bloomberg and Surdna Foundations.

"I think of partnerships with the Kellogg Foundation and the Aspen Institute to focus on moving our residents from low-income jobs to living wages," he said in the address. "I think of partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that builds the solution to protect our most vulnerable populations from the impacts of climate change."

"The City of Jackson has partnered with the Kauffman Foundation as a part of the initiative of the National League of Cities," he added."We are strengthening our equal business opportunity rules and partnering with Hope Community Credit Union and Goldman Sachs to provide over $20 million in access to capital to our underrepresented businesses. We have been working to make an improvement, to bring Jackson closer to the more livable, more accessible city we envision.

"In partnership with social-change investors like the Bloomberg and Surdna Foundations, we have supported local artists in the creation of some breathtaking and inspiring public arts."

Lumumba: The Pandemic Has Derailed Life As We Knew It

The mayor acknowledged how much energy city leaders had directed at dealing with the pandemic.

"We started 2020 set for another year of growth; instead, we found ourselves hit with record floods and pandemic that has derailed life as we knew it," he said. "This year we lost loved ones, more than 200 people from COVID as well as a dramatic spike in homicide. Our jobs and businesses have been affected."

Lumumba mentioned the various government and private organizations that pitched in to help the city wade through the pandemic's challenges.

"MEMA and the Hinds County Board of Supervisors supported us with emergency funds and personal protective equipment," he said. "The Department of Housing and Urban Development released funds to allow us to provide temporary rental assistance for those facing evictions related to COVID. We partnered with community groups and networks like the Jackson Hinds Comprehensive Health Clinic to make sure that residents with limited resources got access to free tests."

In cooperation with an assemblage of service partners, the city has provided food for families amid the pandemic, the mayor said. They include the Mississippi Food Network, Draw A Smile, and Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Mississippi.

While acknowledging the pandemic's impact on businesses, Lumumba highlighted his administration's successes in stemming the virus's spread.

"In fact, for many of our businesses, it was extremely difficult, we had tough choices to make, and with the help of the COVID task force, we found ways to protect lives and reopen as soon and as safely as possible," Lumumba said. "And thanks to your hard work and vigilance, we were able to lower the number of cases in Jackson even as cases increased elsewhere in the state. Of course, it is not over yet, and we must remain vigilant so that we come back better, stronger than we were before."

To mitigate the impact of the pandemic shutdown on businesses, the mayor explained how his administration facilitated millions of dollars in paycheck protection loans.

"Last April, when the local businesses were first dealing with the impact of COVID, our small business development center launched a partnership with Hope Community Credit Union to support businesses seeking paycheck protection program loans," he said. “At a time when many banks were overwhelmed with the applications, our representatives coached businesses through all of the requirements to complete this application.

"This allowed Hope to focus on processing the application and, as a result, Hope processed 142 loan requests from businesses receiving support from the city's small business development center, resulting in $4.5 million in loan under the program."

Lumumba lamented that this year's spike in homicides in the city have led to the loss of over 100 lives.

"It has revealed the deep crisis in which too many of our families find themselves, the profound shortcoming in the systems and structures that are supposed to support them, and the need to challenge ourselves to meet these new realities with much more than the same old approaches,” he said of the violence.

The mayor delivered the address virtually from the Mississippi Museum of Art on Lamar Street and transmitted through YouTube and Facebook.

Email story tips to city/county reporter Kayode Crown at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @kayodecrown.