For housing advocate Judson Malone, “the most important thing is that housing – in whatever form you can provide it – is fundamental.”
Nationwide, there’s a lack of housing options due to market limitations, and in Delaware it’s no different. With a shortage of affordable housing, Malone’s Springboard Collaborative offers a solution: 40 sleeping cabins in a village setup. The cabins provide secure shelter, along with communal bathrooms, 24-hour staffing, and wrap-around support services.
The Springboard Village opened in Georgetown in 2023. The goal is to help individuals regain stability and become self-sufficient, and it’s one example of how nonprofits and housing advocates are stepping in to address the housing crisis in Sussex County. Healthy Communities Delaware, a public/private partnership that has supported Springboard since the planning phase, recognizes humane housing as a Vital Condition necessary for well-being and for individuals to thrive and included the topic of “humane housing” during its Equity Action Summit this past spring.
Delaware is the fourth largest move-in state in the country, attracting many retirees, particularly in Sussex and Kent counties, noted Karen Speakman, executive director of NeighborGood Partners. As such, housing supply has emerged as the main issue for individuals seeking assistance from the organization.
Founded in 1976, NeighborGood Partners is a housing and community development organization on the Delmarva Peninsula. Initially focused on improving rural housing conditions, the organization has expanded to address housing and community development throughout the area. Additional services educate consumers about homeownership and financial literacy.
“With our homeownership and financial literacy, we believe in educating consumers. That’s what we’re all about in terms of financial matters,” Speakman said, adding the clients have come to rely on NeighborGood Partners for “frank, honest information” on what they can, and cannot, afford.
As a partner of The Stand By Me program, NeighborGood Partners has four financial coaches and a housing counseling team of eight. They assist with purchasing homes, avoiding foreclosure, and specialized rental housing efforts. NeighborGood Partners is also a packager for the Rural Development’s 502 program, which offers low-interest rates to help low-income families in rural areas buy homes.
Meanwhile, high rents are also contributing to saving difficulties for families, Speakman added. As a result, NeighborGood Partners is piloting a rent reporting program, working with about 150 families, assisting them in improving their credit scores by reporting their rent payments.
On its development side, NeighborGood Partners recently acquired 78 acres in Laurel with funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), and aims to rezone the area for townhouses and duplexes. The goal is to build around 250 houses on the new parcel, serving low to median-income households, Speakman said, and the community has so far seemed receptive.
“So many subdivisions have been geared toward the retiree 55 and over. I mean, maybe not completely, but there’s not a lot of modest housing being built,” Speakman said, envisioning people who are poultry workers, school teachers and ambulance drivers moving into the townhouses.
In Sussex County, there’s a stark contrast between the eastern half, which is a beach-centered resort community, and the more rural western half, noted Rachel Stucker, executive director of Housing Alliance Delaware. This divide influences the housing market significantly, and housing conditions vary greatly between the two halves of the county.
“We need more funding for affordable, rental housing development, and we need more land that can be used to develop that housing,” Stucker said.
In the meantime, Stucker said, it’s crucial to recognize the vital role of supportive housing in addressing severe housing needs, particularly for individuals who are homeless or have long-term disabilities and require additional assistance. Many of these individuals, such as those on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) with limited income, need significant housing subsidies for affordable rentals.
Yet that, too, is part of Delaware’s housing crisis, Stucker said. There’s a pressing need to focus on developing more supportive housing to address this gap, alongside investments in housing for vulnerable populations. This, by definition, is humane housing.
“If you have a good, healthy stock of affordable housing that’s able to meet the needs of the people who live and work in your community, then when things are happening – like the gentrification of certain areas or the changing landscape due to a new resort – it has less of a detrimental impact,” Stucker said.
