About Us

Our Most Efficient Year...

Delta Housing Development Corporation is a non-profit minority-controlled Mississippi corporation chartered with the specific intent and purpose of providing a long-rang housing delivery system to the rural poor of the Delta. A series of tornadoes devastated an eighteen (18) county area of Central Mississippi on February 21, 1971. Most of the people affected were rural, low-income farmworkers already living in substandard housing. The Department of Housing and Urban Development provided mobile home units for some victims; however, they were for temporary use only. The great increase in agricultural mechanization during the 50's and 60's also displaced thousands of farmworkers in the Delta and left them with no income, no homes, and no technical skills - in essence - no future. With this challenge, a coalition of community organizations formed the Delta Relief Committee (DRC) to provide immediate relief to Sunflower County, which was the hardest hit, and four contiguous counties while examining viable long-term methods for improving the overall-housing situation. After initially surveying the damage, the coalition decided to press forward toward the development of permanent housing for low-income families left homeless in the wake of the tornadoes. DRC vowed not only to assist those presently homeless but also to develop a long-range housing delivery system to assist families living in dilapidated housing and those that were basically homeless. DRC proceeded to research all available housing programs, searching for one that was sensitive to the needs of low-income families in the Delta. Self-Help Housing via Self-Help Technical Assistance Grant from the Farmers Home Administration (currently Rural Development) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture was proposed. On June 1, 1971, the coalition formed Delta Hosing Development Corporation according to FmHA guidelines, obtained a charter and began preparing a Technical Assistance Grant Application under FmHA guidelines. The grant application was submitted August 4, 1971. Actual funding began March 1, 1972 and the first house went into construction September 18, 1972.