FOOTNOTES

¹For the purposes of this study the Lower Mississippi Delta region includes the nonmetro counties identified by the Delta Commission as forming the Lower Mississippi Delta in the three states of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The Lower Mississippi Delta Development Commission was established under Public Law 100-460 in October 1988 through legislation introduced by a bipartisan group of senators and representatives. The Commission was created to study and make recommendations regarding economic needs and problems in a region comprised of 219 counties in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

²Housing Assistance Council, Taking Stock of Rural Housing and Poverty for the 1990s, Washington, DC, 1994. (Unless otherwise noted, all of the data in this report is from the 1990 decennial Census of Population and Housing.)

³U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, Human Resources in the Rural Mississippi Delta (1970), p.1.

⁴Some of the new initiatives targeting the Delta include: Building Communities in the Lower Mississippi Delta--co-convened by the Housing Assistance Council (HAC) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture(USDA); Kellogg Foundation's Delta initiative; HouseMississippi--Fannie Mae's housing investment strategy for the state of Mississippi; Mississippi Project--convened by the Black Congress on Health, Law, and Economics; Southern Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community (EZ/EC) Forum; Delta 2000--convened by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

⁵Housing Problems in the Lower Mississippi Delta: Report to the Lower Mississippi Delta Commission, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. (Date unknown)

⁶These conclusions are excerpted from social science reports published by the Mississippi State University:
     Cosby, Arthur G. A Social and Economic Portrait of the Mississippi Delta, Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University, 1992.
      Doolittle, Larry and Davis, Jerry. Social and Economic Change in the Mississippi Delta: An Update of the "Portrait" Data, Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University, 1996.

⁷Gray, Phyllis A. Economic Development and African Americans in the Mississippi Delta, Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University, 1991.

⁸Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Rural Economic Development: A Profile of Eight Rural Areas Located in the Lower Mississippi Delta Region, St. Louis, Mo., February 1995.

⁹Mid South Delta LISC's 1995 analysis on the Delta.

¹⁰Most of the data reported in this section was provided by Mississippi Home Corporation.

¹¹This growth in population is in direct contrast to other, more remote counties in the Delta. For a comparison with data on the various social indicators from another Delta county in Mississippi, see the case study based in Sunflower County on page 19.

¹² The dependency ratio is the number of persons under 15 and over 64 for every 100 persons aged 15 to 64.

¹³ Cosby, Arthur G. A Social and Economic Portrait of the Mississippi Delta. Social Science Research Center, Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. Mississippi State University, December 1992.

¹⁴Comments by participants during strategy meeting of the Delta initiative co-convened by HAC and USDA on October 6, 1996.

¹⁵The County Commission is the local planning entity.

¹⁶ Mississippi State University, Social Science Research Center, Social and Economic Change in the Mississippi Delta: An Update of Portrait Data, May 1996.

¹⁷The dependency ratio indicates the number of persons under 15 and over 64 for every 100 persons aged 15 to 64.

¹⁸ The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed divided by the number in the labor force. This rate is calculated by the Mississippi Employment Security Commission.

¹⁹ As of March 3, 2000 Delta Housing's complaint is still pending resolution.

²⁰ Rural LISC, Profiles of Community Partners. www.rurallisc.org/profiles/southern_mutual_help_association.htm June 28, 1999.

²¹ Most of the information reported here was provided by Southern Mutual Help Association and reflects 1990 Census figures.

²² Housing Assistance Council, State Data Sheets: An Overview of Poverty and Housing Data from the 1990 Census.  HAC: Washington D.C., 1994. Substandard housing units are commonly defined as those units that are overcrowded and/or lack complete plumbing facilities. This definition is extrememly narrow because it is limited to the very few housing variables collected in the census.

²³Rural LISC, Facts about our Partnerships, www.rurallisc.org/partnerships.htm, June 29, 1999.

²⁴Most of the information reported in this section has been taken from a market study prepared by Connie L. Morton for Southern in 1998.

²⁵Information reported here was provided by staff of Southern and obtained from its 1998 annual report.

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