Jackson City Council Cancels Tiny-Home Village Contract Amid Public Backlash

The Jackson City Council voted 5-0 on March 25, 2026 to rescind the nearly $2.9 million contract for "Safe Place, Safe Space," a planned 60-unit tiny-home village on 18 acres off Capers Avenue in West Jackson, ending a project that the Jackson Resource Center had spent years working to build for people experiencing homelessness.

The reversal followed a turbulent stretch in which Mayor John Horhn had already flagged that the project's scope had "changed pretty significantly" from what the council originally approved, and that state HUD officials had advised the city to rebid rather than risk a future compliance finding. As a result, the city moved away from using Community Development Block Grant and Home ARP dollars to fund the work.

Putalamus "Tala" White, executive director of the Jackson Resource Center, had envisioned transforming the deteriorating Capers Avenue site into a village of tiny homes and support facilities for people experiencing homelessness. At a February 13 council meeting where members discussed allocating $2.7 million in federal funds for the project, Ward 5 Councilman Vernon Hartley said he felt the plan was being "shoved down the throats" of his ward's residents. Council President Brian Grizzell, who had voted in favor of the original approval, abstained from Tuesday's rescission vote. Ward 2 Councilwoman Tina Clay was not in attendance.

The project had a fractious history from the start. The council first approved the contract in a 4-3 vote in 2024 after what the Clarion-Ledger described as a tense meeting that included shouting matches between council members and then-Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba. Ward 1 Councilman Ashby Foote, Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes, and Ward 5 Councilman Vernon Hartley voted against the project at that earlier vote, while Aaron Banks, Brian Grizzell, Virgi Lindsay, and Angelique Lee voted in favor.

Community opposition in West Jackson never subsided. One resident told WLBT: "How is it that you continue to not include us - the citizens of West Jackson? We pay property taxes, we have children, we have a community - but it keeps on being that we're not heard." Others questioned the allocation of federal dollars while existing neighborhood needs went unmet, asking where equivalent funding was for elderly homeowners needing roof repairs or for clearing the ward's abandoned properties.

The Capers Avenue site was once home to a transitional housing program for individuals leaving the Mississippi State Hospital; that facility closed in 2016 and was abandoned. The property has since fallen into disrepair, its brick buildings crumbling and overcome by plastic waste and graffiti.

The city had approved a project with Jackson Resource Center to build a 60-unit tiny house village for very low-income Jacksonians, but months after the approval, White said the city had yet to deliver a signed contract for the organization to break ground. Even before Tuesday's vote, the plan was described as being in its early stages, still requiring additional fundraising, contract negotiations, and further council approval before construction could begin, with a projected launch three to six months out and a full pilot program expected to run up to two years.

With the contract now formally rescinded, the fate of the federal funds, and of the 18-acre Capers Avenue site itself, remains unresolved.