About Us

One of MEPC’s early hurricane recovery victories included working side-by-side with HOPE’s community development team to conduct an analysis that illustrated how the proposed homeowner assistance grant program would limit the participation of low-income families that lost their homes to Katrina. The analysis supported advocacy efforts that were successful in making the program a more accessible solution for a much wider group of homeowners than originally intended. MEPC analysts also drafted the affordable housing section of the report submitted by the Governor’s Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding, and Renewal. The report contributions paved the way for HOPE-led policy efforts to create a financial counseling program, funded with federal recovery dollars that would target low- and moderate-income Mississippians who needed to reconstruct homes that had been lost during Katrina. Once implemented, case workers within the program worked to identify every public and private resource available and developed a prudent plan to stretch the dollars as far as possible. Under HOPE’s leadership, the program assisted over 10,000 families with financial counseling, resulting in over $600 million directed toward the rebuilding of homes on the MS Gulf Coast.

Since then, the policy work of HOPE has evolved at both the state and federal levels. MEPC team members have been called upon to testify before the tax writing, banking and financial services, insurance, and public health committees in both chambers of the Mississippi Legislature. MEPC’s analysis has also been front and center in debates around unemployment insurance modernization, Medicaid expansion and high-cost lending. In 2015, its analysis and communications were instrumental in the warding off of $1.6 billion in proposed tax cuts that would have devastated the state’s ability to invest in education, health care and other important public structures.

In 2018, MEPC aligned its policy priorities with the programmatic objectives of the credit union and loan fund. With a new focus came a new name, the HOPE Policy Institute continued to advocate for communities in need.

HOPE played a critical role in stabilizing households, small businesses, and communities across the Deep South. HOPE responded by rapidly deploying emergency capital and financial services to areas that were disproportionately affected by the health and economic crisis. The organization helped small businesses and nonprofits access relief through programs such as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), ensuring that minority-owned and rural businesses—many of which lacked relationships with traditional banks—could obtain forgivable loans to retain workers and stay open.   

HOPE also expanded access to safe and affordable financial services for individuals and families by processing stimulus payments, offering emergency loan products, providing mortgage assistance and payment relief, and supporting community partners addressing urgent needs like food insecurity, housing stability, and disaster response.    

Through these efforts, HOPE helped channel hundreds of millions of dollars into historically underserved communities, demonstrating the vital role that Community Development Financial Institutions play in responding to economic crises and advancing equitable recovery. 

Throughout all of HOPE’s policy work – whether through MEPC or through its broader lending and community development competencies – a common thread emerges. High-quality analysis buttressed by sound data that is grounded in the practical experience of working with individuals and communities makes the most compelling case for change. The creation of the Hope Policy Institute recognizes the importance of public policy in supporting the attainment of HOPE’s mission by institutionalizing the organization’s policy advocacy approach that has been so successful over the last 20 years in creating opportunity for all.