Why Should Delaware Care?
As controversy has broken out in Georgetown this fall over the town council’s handling homelessness, a proposed tiny home community – Little Living – also has come under attack. Leaders of the project launched a last-ditch campaign to respond to criticism ahead of an upcoming town council vote required for construction on the community to begin.
Georgetown-based nonprofit Little Living is charging ahead in defense of its cottage community proposal, as the organization faces mounting opposition from town residents and a looming town council vote on an ordinance necessary for the project to move forward.
The group held a meeting Tuesday night to dispel what it called a “tidal wave of negative misinformation” about the project, including claims that the houses are meant for homeless people, and that Georgetown would be the “guinea pig” for a cottage community.
“We’ve respected every single opposition argument, but we also found a very significant number of those issues to be just plain wrong,” Simon Cousins, the organization’s newly hired public relations manager, said at the meeting.
The organization appeared to be sailing ahead with support from town leadership for its plan to build 22 tiny homes on East Market Street, until large groups of residents began showing up at the October and November town council meetings in opposition of the project.
The opponents, many members of the growing Facebook group “Make Georgetown Great Again,” have decried the cottage homes proposal as another example of their dissatisfaction with town leadership and its handling of the area’s homeless population.
The cottage housing ordinance, which would be the first step toward allowing Little Living to build its homes, will be voted on at the Dec. 8 town council meeting.
If the ordinance is approved, the group would still need to go through the steps of submitting a site plan, and receiving both planning commission and town council approval in order to begin construction.
Little Living’s last ditch defense
Little Living organizers called a meeting this week to “set the record straight” on the cottage ordinance and respond to what Cousins described as 63 different lies that residents have spread about the tiny homes, either at council meetings or on social media.
Cousins, whom Little Living hired to help with marketing and public relations, did most of the talking at the meeting. George Meringolo, the founder of Little Living, added to Cousin’s message with some of his own points.
At the Nov. 10 town council meeting, resident Linda Dennis said she was tired of Georgetown being the “test site” for projects like Little Living, or Springboard Delaware’s Pallet Village, which has also come under fire by residents in recent months.
In response, Cousins said Tuesday that Georgetown would not be the “test site” for anything, citing more than 35 cottage housing developments have been built across the country in states like Florida, Texas and Washington, since 2003.
He added that tiny homes should not be viewed as a partisan issue, as they have been built in both red states and blue states.
Meringolo told Spotlight Delaware after the meeting that Little Living would be the first cottage community in Delaware, though New Castle County passed a “pocket neighborhood” ordinance in late 2024.
Another criticism Cousins responded to is that the cottages would serve as transitional housing for homeless individuals.
He unveiled a poster with pictures of the types of people he said Little Living is hoping to attract to the cottages, including young professionals, veterans, and older adults looking to downsize their homes.
Meringolo added that the rents will be geared toward people earning between 45% and 75% of area median income, or between $36,000 and $60,000 a year. The organization plans to charge $950 a month for a one-bedroom unit, $1,100 for a two-bedroom and $1,200 for a three-bedroom, he said.
“I don’t know how to solve the homeless problem,” Meringolo said. “I don’t have enough time left on Earth to solve the homeless problem. But I can help people find homes to live in.”
Town Council Member Penuel Barrett said last month he planned to vote against the ordinance due to this concern about future developers building more cottage homes.
Cousins responded to Barrett’s claim and the more broad concern that the ordinance would automatically allow any developer to build 12 tiny homes on an acre by pointing to the town’s development process. Any project, including Little Living, would need approval from the planning commission and town council to build cottages, he said.
Springboard Delaware, the organization that runs the Pallet Village in Georgetown, told Spotlight Delaware it is considering building a cottage community. The Hearth and Shelter Foundation, a statewide affordable housing organization, also is considering building tiny homes in the area, according to materials provided by Little Living.
While Meringolo said the group spread the word about Tuesday’s meeting online, including on the Make Georgetown Great Again Facebook page, nobody in opposition to the project attended. Some opponents of the project have come to open house events Little Living held over the past month, he added.
The event drew about a dozen supporters, including members of Little Living’s board of directors, employees of affordable housing lender NeighborGood Partners, which gave Little Living a loan for their construction process, and a couple town residents.
Dennis Winzenried, one of the only town residents who has spoken out against the Make Georgetown Great Again group at town meetings, came out in support of the cottage ordinance.
“This is the step toward permanent housing that we’ve been lacking – that we need,” he said.
Upcoming vote
In addition to holding the community meeting and creating social media materials about the ordinance, Meringolo said he and other Little Living leaders have been working to meet with town council members and get as many on board with the proposal as possible.
Meringolo said the organization has met with four of the five town council members and Mayor Bill West, while one council person, who he did not name, declined to meet with the organization.
West told Spotlight Delaware in mid-November he was on board with the ordinance, but wanted Little Living to consider a different location further from the center of town than East Market Street to quell some resident objections.
Meringolo, however, said he was not aware of any discussions of a location change for his proposed cottage homes.
While Council Member Barrett said he plans to vote against the ordinance, Eric Evans said in November he was still making up his mind.
Council Members Christina Diaz-Malone and Tony Neal did not respond to Spotlight Delaware’s request for comment.