John Davis, outgoing director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services

John Davis, the director of Mississippi Department of Human Services, who started there as a social worker and worked his way up to lead the department, will retire after 28 years with the agency, MDHS announced on Twitter Monday.

Gov. Phil Bryant appointed Davis to head the agency following former director Ricky Berry’s resignation in 2016. Since, the agency has undergone a number of changes as well as a federal investigation into how it reports its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) error rates. Before his appointment, Davis had been deputy administrator for programs, office director for the division of economic assistance and director of the Lincoln County Department of Human Services.

“I appreciate John Davis’ twenty-eight years of service to the Department of Human Services. John has dedicated his life to serving others and has been a tremendous advocate for Mississippi’s children and families. We will begin a search for a new Executive Director immediately,” Bryant said in a release.

Most recently, the department changed it’s eligibility criteria for SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, to comply with a state law passed during the 2019 session allowing people with past felony drug convictions to be eligible for the benefit. In July, the department began automatically issuing benefits to such people who are part of a household already receiving SNAP.

Among Davis’ accomplishments — awards for accuracy and stewardship within SNAP — the release cites his implementation of mandatory work requirements within the food assistance program.

In May, the board for Mississippi’s Statewide Longitudinal Data System (SLDS), which collects and connects data on Mississippi citizens from various state agencies, nominated Davis chairman. He announced plans to use the data to develop solutions for people living in poverty. The state plan he helped develop for the agency is called “gen plus” and aims to address the needs of children, parents and grandparents simultaneously.

“Over the years what my goal has been is to really, truly, holistically look at a family to help them move to self sufficiency and that sounds really good. You know, it’s easy for somebody to say, ‘Oh, well you should be doing this or give them that.’ Over the years, we’ve seen it go in all different directions,” Davis told Mississippi Today in May.

“But we have been really concerted in the past three to four years of looking from a generational plus — or gen plus — perspective to say it’s not good enough just to find somebody a job. How do we help the family holistically, say, is there education requirements? Is there food requirements? Is there clothing requirements? What are the barriers? Are there soft skill requirements? So we’ve been able to do that by looking at the family as a whole.”

“But we need better data, which comes through the SLDS, to really do the good job,” he said. “I think SLDS is our best chance in the state of Mississippi of getting to the end goal of helping people and families holistically.”

In addition to SNAP, the department of human services also administers Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, known as welfare, and the Child Care Development Fund child care vouchers. It oversees child care centers and child support enforcement. The department came under fire in 2017 after it reported only approving 1.4 percent of applicants for TANF in 2016.

According to a Mississippi Today analysis of public records, the agency approved roughly one-fourth of applicants in the following two years, though the overall caseload continues to drop steadily. The program is serving less than 7 percent of families living below the poverty line.

In recent years, the department has focused on coordinating services as part of the state’s Workforce Opportunity Investment Act plan to the federal government. That has resulted in 30 “one-stop shops” operated by Families First of Mississippi, a nonprofit that offers intangible resources like resume writing or parenting classes, cropping up across the state. The department of human services grants a portion of its roughly $110 million TANF funds to Families First to run the centers.

The department is also still implementing changes to its child care center quality rating, which will allow centers designated a “comprehensive” center to receive larger voucher reimbursements from the state.

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

Anna Wolfe, a native of Tacoma, Wa., is an investigative reporter writing about poverty and economic justice. Before joining the staff at Mississippi Today in September of 2018, Anna worked for three years at Clarion Ledger, Mississippi’s statewide daily newspaper. She also worked as an investigative reporter for the Center for Public Integrity and Jackson Free Press, the capital city’s alternative newsweekly. Anna has received national recognition for her work, including the 2021 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, the 2021 Collier Prize for State Government Accountability, the 2021 John Jay/Harry Frank Guggenheim Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting Award, the 2020 Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award and the February 2020 Sidney Award for reporting on Mississippi’s debtors prisons. She received the National Press Foundation’s 2020 Poverty and Inequality Award. She also received first place in the regional Green Eyeshade Awards in 2021 for Public Service in Online Journalism and 2020 for Business Reporting, and the local Bill Minor Prize for Investigative Journalism in 2019 and 2018 for reporting on unfair medical billing practices and hunger in the Mississippi Delta.