Congress allocated $200 million for Mississippi rental assistance in the latest stimulus package. Here's how to add yourself to the waitlist. Credit: Associated Press

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered a stop to some evictions and residential removals beginning Sept. 4 to the end of the year.

But a renter must provide a declaration to their landlord or property manager, certifying that the order applies to them, for it to work.

For people who may not have access to a printer, the Kentucky Equal Justice Center developed a computer application that allows people facing eviction to fill out and sign the CDC document online and email it to their landlord. Click here to use the tool.

Some justice court judges, the people in charge of evictions across Mississippi, are being more proactive, informing tenants of the option. But others are conducting business as usual, only considering the CDC order when it comes up.

Hinds County has seen 260 evictions and 78 warrants of removal just in the last 2 weeks.

The CDC issued a nationwide eviction moratorium that took effect Sept. 4, but it only works if the tenant asks for it, which means they must be aware it exists. https://t.co/PwiNj8Y2Z6

— Anna Wolfe (@ayewolfe) September 17, 2020

The order covers people who: 1) earned less than $99,000 in 2020, 2) are unable to pay rent due to income loss, a layoff, or extraordinary out-of-pocket expenses, 3) are making their best effort to pay what they can, 4) have made their best effort to secure other government assistance for rent or housing (such as the Rental Assistance for Mississippians Program (RAMP)), and 5) face homelessness if they are evicted.

Mississippians facing eviction may fill out the document below to invoke the CDC order:

Download the Form Here

 

Download the Form Here

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Anna Wolfe is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who covers inequity and corruption in government safety net programs, nonprofit service providers and institutions affecting the marginalized.

She began reporting for Mississippi Today in 2018, after she approached the editor with the idea of starting a poverty beat, the first of its kind in the state.

Wolfe has received national recognition for her years-long coverage of Mississippi’s welfare program, in which she exposed new details about how officials funneled tens of millions of federal public assistance funds away from needy families and instead to their friends, families and the pet projects of famous athletes.

Since joining Mississippi Today, she has received several national honors including the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting, the Livingston Award, two Goldsmith Prizes for Investigative Reporting, the Collier Prize for State Government Accountability, the Sacred Cat Award, the Nellie Bly Award, the John Jay/Harry Frank Guggenheim Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting Award, the Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award, the Sidney Award, the National Press Foundation’s Poverty and Inequality Award and others.

Previously, Wolfe worked for three years at Clarion Ledger, Mississippi’s statewide newspaper, where she covered city hall, health care, and wrote stories about hunger and medical billing, earning the Bill Minor Prize for Investigative Journalism two years in a row.

Born and raised on the Puget Sound in Washington State, Wolfe moved to Mississippi in 2012 to attend Mississippi State University, where she currently serves on the Digital Journalism Advisory Board. She has lived in Jackson, Mississippi since graduating in 2014.