Shelter discussed as Biloxi grapples with ‘complex’ homeless problems
Andy Linville pressed a $5 bill into a homeless woman’s hand at the small craft harbor in Biloxi, where he works on weekends and she had been pacing for hours.
She looked up at him with tears in her eyes, her face swollen. “I need a safe place to go,” she said.
Linville called around but was unable to find help for her.
He was one of 32 speakers on Tuesday night at a Town Hall on homelessness that the City Council held at the Biloxi Civic Center so there would be enough space for a crowd. More than 150 people showed up for the forum.
Everyone was calm as they talked about the violence, drug use and trash that have mounted around homes and businesses that surround what was for decades a homeless sanctuary: the overgrown Broadwater Resort acreage that sits between the beach highway and busy Pass Road.
The Broadwater property owners are working on clearing the land after years of persistent complaints to the City Council. More than one resident said during the town hall that the city should have forced the owners, wealthy businessmen Roy Anderson and W.C. “Cotton” Fore, to clean up the property sooner.
At the conclusion of the two-hour meeting, Councilman Paul Tisdale suggested the city would need to build an emergency shelter, with space for services offered by nonprofit agencies that help homeless people with their individual and often-complicated needs. Their goal is permanent housing and self-sufficiency.
“The biggest concern is Not In My Backyard,” Tisdale said, referring to the expression NIMBY that describes people who understand services are needed but don’t want any near them. “We could better manage this issue if we had a location that I just described.”
“It’s not perfect but it’s a start because all we’ve been doing for the last six or seven years is spinning our wheels.”
City Council sets second meeting
The issue has come to a head during municipal elections. Three council members and the mayor are still in contested races after municipal primaries were held. Ward 3 Councilwoman Dixie Newman represents the area where the Broadwater property is located and faces a Republican primary runoff on Tuesday.
Newman said she was disappointed that the Broadwater owners and nonprofit leaders did not speak during the town hall and offer ways they could help. Representatives of the Broadwater and nonprofits were in the audience but chose to listen to community members instead of speaking.
At Newman’s suggestion, the council unanimously agreed to set another meeting on the homeless issue. Newman said she hopes nonprofits and the Broadwater owners will come prepared to answer questions and offer solutions.
On Wednesday, the Broadwater property owners said through representative Hunter Lipscomb that the cleanup is progressing.
“This ongoing process is intended to maintain the property in a manner that is respectful to our neighbors and compassionate toward those who may have once called it home,” he said.
Lipscomb also said he was informed Tuesday that no homeless people remain on the property.
The final speaker at the town hall meeting, Mayor Andrew “Fofo” Gilich,, said homelessness is “complex” and the meeting was not quite what he expected.
“I thought it was going to be a war,” Gilich said, “but it was very informative.”
Gilich handily won his Republican primary against a former member of the Ku Klux Klan. Linville, who talked about the homeless woman he tried to help, is one of his opponents in the general election, as is Farren Santibanez, who also spoke at the meeting.
Santibanez said she is working with Libertarians for Learning, which is about to launch a homeless initiative. She said Liberty Landing will offer housing and rehabilitation for homeless people.
Santibanez said land has been secured between Iroquois and Seal avenues in Biloxi for a community of 96 container homes that would be stacked on the property. An education center is included in plans, she said.
“I’m thrilled to bring this message of hope and something new,” she said.
Homeless woman just ‘needed a chance’
Residents and political leaders fear more services would draw homeless people to Biloxi.
Some already insist that a “trifecta” attracts homeless people to West Biloxi: the Broadwater property, the nearby St. Vincent De Paul Society at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church and a methadone clinic on Pass Road in close proximity to homeless camps.
The society offers sack lunches, supplies, clothes and other services for homeless clients. Numerous speakers defended the methadone clinic, the only one in South Mississippi. They said they’re able to work after years of addiction because of the treatment offered there and closing it would create a host of problems.
Some speakers offered the common opinion that homeless people created their own problems through bad choices. One man even said it’s a great life with no work and the beach for hanging out.
But other speakers countered that opinion. Melody Worsham said she suffered from mental illness, started hallucinating and had no family around to help. Being a homeless woman on the streets of Biloxi was terrifying, she said. She had to hide daily to avoid being hurt or injured, she said.
Services are scattered and hard to reach, Worsham added. Nonprofits, she believes, need to work under one roof.
With a little food and rest, she said, homeless people can think straight and begin to solve their problems. She was able to escape the streets and has been working in mental health for more than a decade.
“I’m a decent human being,” she said, “and I just needed a chance.”
Resident Yvonne Harrison also injected compassion into the conversation while acknowledging that Biloxians fear for their safety and property. She said homelessness is not a choice, mentioning one woman who was caring for her mom. When her mother died, her Social Security ended and her daughter had no place to live.
She said the cost of housing and groceries exacerbates the problem.
“These people need to work but they also need to be safe off the streets,” she said, drawing a smattering of applause when she suggested an emergency shelter. “People have no place to go.”
This story was originally published April 16, 2025 at 11:05 AM.
