Missy Elliott has donated $50,000 to the Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority in celebration of the second “Missy Elliott Day.”

Last year, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin declared October 17 as “Missy Elliott Day” months after council members voted unanimously to rename McLean Street “Missy Elliott Boulevard.”

Alisa Winston, the executive director of PRHA, said the money will pay the past-due rents of 26 families. Winston received a giant cardboard check at the Dr. O. Marriner Family Life Center at Grove Church, the city’s oldest African American Baptist church.

In a brief speech, the Grammy-winning artist shared, “Instead of it being a celebration of Missy Elliott, you know about me, I wanted to give back and let that be the celebration of Missy Elliott, just to show that I love everybody out here.”

Missy Elliott, officially Melissa Arnette Elliott, was born on July 1, 1971, at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth in Portsmouth, Virginia. Elliott and her mother lived in the Hodges Ferry neighborhood of Portsmouth. Elliott graduated from Manor High School.

(Photo: Derek Banks)

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