Special Series
This is the third story in Spotlight Delaware’s five-part series examining homelessness in the First State.
Why Should Delaware Care?
Homelessness is on the rise in Delaware, which continues to burden taxpayers each year. But as more people find themselves without housing, the state’s shelters are becoming more strained. As limited shelter capacity and high barriers to accessing those services deepen the blow, advocates say addressing both capacity and access with be crucial as the state looks for solutions.
When the temperature drops below freezing, Teresa Campbell-Harris braces herself.
Dozens of men will soon flood into the basement of the People’s Church in Dover seeking refuge from the bitter cold at her Code Purple emergency overnight shelter.
“It’s jam-packed,” Harris said. “There’s really no room at all.”
Still, Harris does what she can to make sure nobody is turned away, even if that means packing 70 men into the already crammed church basement. For her staff, who work overnight in the emergency shelter, Harris said it can be overwhelming.
Throughout Delaware, shelters and service providers have worked to meet a growing demand in the face of a homelessness crisis that has deepened since the pandemic. Yet, the number of available beds and transitional programs falls short, straining shelters like Harris’.
Even when there is space, securing a bed isn’t always a guarantee. Obstacles such as not having a ride, showing up with children or a pet can be the difference between a night in the shelter or out in the cold.
In response to the challenges, one legislative effort aims to increase the amount of beds in the state by forcing the hand of local governments to be more involved in homeless shelter construction.
State Rep. Sophie Phillips (D-Newark), who proposed House Bill 135 earlier this year, said she hopes it will incentivize local governments to build more shelter space by limiting their ability to move homeless people off public property unless “adequate shelter” is available.
“You can’t just say affordable housing is the solution when we don’t have the first step,” Phillips told Spotlight Delaware.
The state of shelters
Although providing permanent, affordable housing is Delaware’s stated goal when addressing homelessness, short-term shelter and intermediate services play a vital role in meeting immediate needs like food, warmth, hygiene, and safety.
At times, they are an individual’s first point of contact with the state’s support system.
But growth of Delaware’s homeless population is outpacing these services, and some say they are not sufficient enough to begin with.
“We do need to think through how to have sufficient options for people, because people come back to, ‘We need shelter.’ Well, yes, and we need a place that’s right for every individual,” said Kim Eppehimer, CEO of the Friendship House, which offers day centers and transitional housing for the homeless, and Limen Recovery, a rehabilitation center for those struggling with substance abuse.
In 2025, Delaware saw a 16% increase in homelessness, identifying 1,585 unhoused individuals during the annual point-in-time (PIT) count in January. The count acts as a snapshot of the state of homelessness in Delaware on one night of the year.
Many experts, including those who conduct the survey, concede that the figure undercounts the true number of people experiencing homelessness. Still, the PIT count for 2025 shows there are only about 1,200 emergency shelter beds in the entire state, and the number of transitional housing beds, which allow people to stay longer while working toward permanent housing, is less than 400.
Although both the data and organizers agree that there is not enough shelter space, they also note that accessing those beds can be complicated in practice.
Most of the state’s emergency and transitional shelters are run by nonprofit organizations, which work with private, state, and federal dollars to fill the need.
According to the Housing Alliance of Delaware, a statewide nonprofit that works to address homelessness and provides state data, there are just more than 60 emergency and transitional shelters across Delaware, operated by 28 organizations.
To access these shelter beds, individuals generally cannot walk into a facility. Instead, they must call the Housing Alliance of Delaware, which handles some referrals, or call the shelter directly, where they may be placed on a waitlist if no bed is immediately available.
The Delaware Department of Health and Social Services also recommends people experiencing homelessness visit one of the state’s 15 State Service Centers, which can also place people into emergency shelters or offer motel vouchers.
About half of Delaware’s shelters are located in New Castle County, which is home to more than half the state’s homeless population. Downstate, limited shelter capacity and transportation barriers make access more difficult for people in Kent and Sussex counties.
There are no year-round emergency shelters for families in Sussex County, said Rachel Stucker, executive director of the Housing Alliance, which she said leaves families to rely on the state’s motel voucher program, which can be difficult to attain due to eligibility requirements.
Barriers to entry
In addition to the obstacles that the shelter system itself poses to homeless individuals. Rules and eligibility requirements can be another barrier.
Steve Metraux, a University of Delaware professor who studies homelessness policy, pointed to what some providers call the “three P’s”: pets, partners and possessions. This means many people won’t enter a shelter if it means abandoning a pet, separating from a partner they rely on for safety, or losing the bags and belongings that they carry.
In Christina Park in Wilmington, now commonly referred to as “tent city” after the city designated the Eastside park as the only sanctioned public space for people experiencing homelessness, these barriers play out in real time.
Alphonso Lancaster, who has been living in the park since the summer, acknowledged that not everyone there is ready to accept help.
Lancaster said a service provider recently offered to help him move into stable housing, but he declined – at least for now.
“I ain’t ready,” he said. “I gotta collect my stuff, because I’m not losing everything again.”
Curfews, sobriety expectations, and faith-based policies can also push people to avoid shelter altogether, particularly those dealing with substance use disorders or untreated mental illness.
Many emergency shelters in the state also require individuals who spend the night to leave in the morning and won’t allow them to return until the evening.
To fulfill the daytime need, day centers become a crucial resource, providing a place for people to charge their phones, use a computer, use the bathroom, have a drink or snack, and rest temporarily. Some also provide financial assistance for people who are struggling to pay legal fines and fees.
There are only about a dozen day centers in the state, according to the Housing Alliance of Delaware.
Metraux says that during the winter, emergency overnight shelters like Harris’, which open up when overnight temperatures are scheduled to dip below 20 degrees as part of Delaware’s Code Purple initiative, shed light on the actual need for shelter.
“People staying in the Code Purple beds are the ones who either can’t get shelter or otherwise wouldn’t want shelter,” he said.
Since the winter months bring a critical demand, Code Purple shelters aim to be low-barrier, accepting walk-ins and only requiring a person’s name and birthday for records.
In contrast, many year-round shelters in Delaware require more in-depth identification, which can also pose a major barrier for some.
And these problems aren’t specific to Delaware. Only 16% of states across the country had enough shelter beds for people who needed one on a single night in 2024, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
The National Alliance’s data asserts that even if a state seems to have enough shelters, they still may be inaccessible because they either don’t allow the “three P’s,” they may be too far from an individual, or they may not be accessible for those who are disabled.
Metraux, Eppehimer, and Stucker all emphasized the need for more low-barrier shelters.
National organizations like the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the Homeless and Housing Resource Center agree, while noting that low-barrier shelters can reduce unsheltered homelessness and enable engagement with housing and supportive services by first meeting basic survival needs.
“People need shelter,” Eppehimer said. “They need a stable place to be in order to work on any other challenges they may be facing.”
Transportation and funding woes
It wasn’t long ago that Glenn Belle found himself in an emergency shelter.
Now, he finds himself giving back as an overnight volunteer at the Restoration Community Church in Seaford, a Code Purple shelter run by Love INC of Mid-Delmarva, a faith-based organization that oversees six emergency winter shelters around Sussex County.
Belle said that in Sussex County, transportation and finding a ride to shelters can be the difference between staying the night or staying out in the cold.
“That’s all the time, every day,” Belle said. “There’s somebody that will want to be here that can’t get here.”
The Restoration Church, he added, is one of the only men’s shelters in Seaford. If someone finds themselves on the other side of town when a Code Purple is called, they may not be able to make it there before the doors close at 9:30 p.m.
And transportation issues are not just a barrier to immediate shelter. In a report published in October, state officials charged with examining fatal opioid overdoses found that a lack of meaningful access to public transportation is one of the “larger systematic hurdles” faced by those confronting both homelessness and drug addiction when seeking resources.
The report highlighted programs that already exist in the state’s health department like the “DTRN Rideshare,” which offers rides to appointments and treatment for those struggling with addiction, but also said these options could be expanded in rural Delaware.
“These measures could help ensure that individuals are not denied access to life-saving treatment and recovery support simply because they lack transportation,” the report said.
In addition to transportation barriers, limited funding for emergency shelters is a major reason inadequate services exist, said Stucker, from the Housing Alliance of Delaware.
“Most of the shelters that are operating in the state in some way, rely on the kindness of neighbors and volunteers and donors just to have enough money to operate and keep the lights on,” Stucker said.
Delaware does receive funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to support such services, but some of that money is spread across multiple programs and is not exclusively dedicated to providing emergency shelter.
‘We don’t want this’
Back in the basement of the People’s Church in Dover, dozens of cots sit ready for men looking for somewhere warm and safe to rest for the night. Some already in the shelter congregate around tables with meals, while others lay in their cots unburdened by their shoes.
But Sue Harris, a trustee with the church, acknowledged that for years, the church has had to send these men back out in the morning.
“We would open the door, we make sure they stay alive, they get food and clothes and back out,” Harris said. “It was all we could do.”
She said changes are coming, and the shelter will add a workforce development program and require goal-setting like going to detox or doing something as simple as changing their clothes.
Harris said this stemmed from the church becoming a “loophole” where people could rest their head for four months in the winter without any accountability or progress toward getting their lives on track.
Outside of the church, Harris acknowledged a testy relationship with neighbors who she said have challenged the shelter, saying it attracts drugs and prostitution. And to an extent, she agrees with those concerns.
But she also denied that the shelter’s offerings are contributing to rising homelessness in the area, saying people would still be somewhere. She believes that frustration would be better directed at local and state leaders responsible for building affordable housing.
“We don’t want this,” Harris said. “We’re trying to do everything we can to help them get somewhere else in a path other than this.”