Why Should Delaware Care?
Charging individuals with loitering and solicitation violations has been a hot button topic across Delaware in recent years. When Attorney General Kathy Jennings mentioned at her department’s Joint Finance Committee hearing an updated loitering and solicitation bill that her office has written, a number of legislators took issue with the fact that they had not been informed of the proposed legislation.
As municipalities across Delaware grapple with the impacts of homelessness and panhandling, a revelation by Attorney General Kathy Jennings that her office has drafted a bill to help address the issue prompted questions and confusion from a number of lawmakers on Wednesday.
During the Department of Justice’s budget presentation before the General Assembly’s Joint Finance Committee (JFC), Jennings said her office had drafted a bill to curb loitering and solicitation – two issues often intertwined with addressing homelessness. She also said she had shared this draft bill with members of leadership in the House and Senate.
The move sparked surprise from a number of members of the JFC, who said they had not been included on any communications about the bill, but have been concerned about similar issues in their own districts.
“I have never heard of it,” State Sen. Laura Sturgeon (D-Brandywine Hundred West) said in response to the draft bill. “I had no idea you all had a bill written that addresses this problem.”
The updated loitering and solicitation bill, which would prohibit individuals from impeding pedestrian and car traffic, comes after years of controversy surrounding anti-panhandling and anti-solicitation laws in the state.
“I’ll make sure you get it,” Jennings said to the 12 lawmakers on the committee, which is tasked with rewriting the governor’s recommended budget and preparing a proposal for the General Assembly to consider in the spring.
Each department head discusses their budget proposal with the panel every February, but the hearings frequently veer into other questions around policy and current events.
Members of the JFC said on Wednesday they have heard repeated concerns from constituents about loitering and panhandling, and that the issues are top of mind for many Delawareans.
At the same time, municipalities across the state have been exploring in recent months whether they can pass an anti-loitering ordinance that would comply with the First Amendment.
The Dover City Council, for example, has divided into factions and is weighing threats of a legal challenge over a proposed ordinance that would prohibit people from stopping and standing on street medians. The city government is set to vote on the measure later this month.
Controversy over these laws at the state level began in mid-2023, when the ACLU of Delaware sued the state and the city of Wilmington over their anti-loitering and anti-solicitation laws, saying the laws violated the First Amendment. That case was settled in early 2024, when Jennings told the state and all its municipalities not to enforce any anti-loitering and anti-solicitation laws they had on the books.
Since then, her department has reportedly encouraged municipalities to rely on other nuisance-related offenses for individuals who are caught loitering, such as trespassing and disorderly conduct.
Passing an updated loitering and solicitation law that does not raise constitutional concerns is one step in the process of solving these quality of life issues, Jennings said. But factors such as addiction, mental health struggles, and a lack of housing are other parts of the problem that must be addressed.
“I don’t think it’s going to solve all the problems of homelessness and people being nuisances and sitting on peoples’ porches and sleeping there,” Jennings told the JFC. “I understand that.”
While members of the JFC expressed dismay on Wednesday that they had not been informed about the drafted bill, members of House and Senate leadership — who Jennings said had been told about the proposal — did not have a concrete response to the legislation.
Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend (D-Newark/Glasgow) wrote in a message to Spotlight Delaware that “Yes, the law needs to be rewritten,” while keeping in mind that more supportive housing, drug treatment options, and other efforts are needed to fully address the issues facing communities.
Townsend did not, however, comment specifically on Jennings’ draft bill.
Members of House leadership did not respond to Spotlight Delaware’s request for comment.
Conflicting legislation
The updated loitering and solicitation law, which has not been posted publicly but was obtained by Spotlight Delaware, amends the original law’s language to be more focused on individuals disrupting traffic than on individuals soliciting money or rides.
Mat Marshall, a spokesperson for the DOJ, told Spotlight Delaware the new drafted legislation takes a more “focused scope” to address pedestrian safety issues, instead of wading into First Amendment considerations.
“The problem with the legislation that was challenged in the lawsuit was essentially that it was overly broad in the way that it’s written, and it would have prohibited protected speech,” Marshall said.
For example, the drafted bill replaces the phrase “soliciting rides or business” from the original legislation with “impeding vehicular and bicycle traffic.”
Rep. Stephanie Bolden (D-Wilmington) made her surprise about the bill particularly clear during the hearing on Wednesday.
Bolden, who represents Wilmington’s Eastside, where she said she frequently encounters trespassing and loitering, said she had brought her concerns about the issue to Jennings’ office, but never received an update.
“I think it’s disingenuous that no one has informed me,” Bolden said to the committee. “I’m very sensitive about this situation because I live there on the Eastside, and I want to see the improvements.”
Marshall said the AG’s office has been in conversations with state lawmakers and city officials, like the Wilmington City Council, about the drafting process since work began on drafting an updated bill in late 2024.
He said, specifically, that Jennings’ office has spoken with Rep. Kim Williams (D-Stanton), co-chair of the JFC, about the bill multiple times.
Williams confirmed to Spotlight Delaware that she had inquired about the bill a couple times since late 2024, but said she was surprised to hear on Wednesday that the bill had been drafted. The last update Williams had received, she said, was that the DOJ was facing “roadblocks” with the legislation.
Williams said she did not know what the roadblocks referred to.
In response to legislators’ disappointment that they had not been looped in on communications about the bill, Marshall said it is typical for the DOJ to go directly to House and Senate leadership for communication about certain legislation that has “statewide interest” or focuses on a “major issue.”
Bolden added that she anticipates some lawmakers seeing Jennings’ proposed bill coming into conflict with House Bill 135, sometimes called a “homeless bill of rights,” which aims to protect the rights of unhoused people to use public spaces for congregating and sleeping when they don’t have a shelter bed or permanent housing available.
Rep. Sophie Phillips (D-Christiana) introduced HB 135 to the House of Representatives last May. While several lawmakers refer to the legislation as a homeless bill of rights, Phillips pushes back against the characterization, pointing out that hers is distinct from past years’ bills that were also given that name.
Jennings herself said at the hearing there “most definitely” is tension between the homeless bill of rights and her updated loitering bill.
Bolden, however, said she thinks loitering and homelessness are separate issues, and both bills could work simultaneously.
“I think these things can be addressed and they will work,” she said, “but it has to be from a holistic approach.”
Maggie Reynolds is a Report for America corps member and Spotlight Delaware reporter who covers rural communities in Delaware. Your donation to match our Report for America grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://spotlightdelaware.org/support/.
