Why Should Delaware Care?
The homeless shelter at the People’s Church of Dover has drawn criticism from city leaders and residents in recent weeks for bringing issues to its surrounding neighborhood. The city’s latest move to require the shelter to apply for zoning approval could shut down one of the few homelessness resources in Kent County.
A month after Dover City Council voted to deny grant funding for the homeless shelter at the People’s Church of Dover, the city has issued a letter threatening to shut down part of the shelter’s operations.
City Solicitor Dan Griffith sent a letter on March 23 to the church’s lead pastor, Derrick Hodge, saying that operating an overnight shelter is not permitted under the church’s current residential zoning designation.
As a result, Griffith wrote, the church must submit an application to the city’s Planning Commission requesting it be allowed to continue functioning as an overnight shelter.
Griffith’s letter comes amid an outcry from nearby residents, who say the church’s shelter has brought drug use, prostitution and blight to their neighborhood.
But Hodge rejects these claims. He said he fears the letter could be the city’s first step toward shutting down the shelter’s overnight operations, as he doubts the Planning Commission would vote to approve the church’s request.
The city’s attempt to enforce its zoning laws and respond to resident concerns could ultimately eliminate one of the few homeless service providers in central Delaware — long considered scarce in homelessness and drug detox resources.
Located on South Bradford Street, roughly a quarter-mile from Dover City Hall, the People’s Church shelter serves daily meals year round and operates as a Code Purple overnight shelter for men in the winter months.
Teresa Campbell Harris, director of the “People’s Community Center” organization — the shelter arm of the People’s Church of Dover — told Spotlight Delaware the shelter has served nearly 500 people since last October. The $47,000 grant request that city leaders denied earlier this month would have allowed the shelter, in collaboration with the Department of Labor, to provide workforce development programs.
But residents of Bradford Street say those same people who the shelter has served are trespassing on their properties, openly using drugs and making their neighborhood less safe.
Complaints rise over past year
According to emails obtained by Spotlight Delaware, the city of Dover received more than 15 complaint letters between December 2025 and February 2026 along with one threat of a lawsuit over the shelter’s improper zoning from the company Tidemark Construction, which has an office down the street from the church.
One lifelong Bradford Street resident, Andrew Freud, said he and his neighbors have been watching the shelter increase its offered services since the COVID pandemic, expanding from just a Code Purple overnight winter shelter to also include an afterschool children’s program and more meal offerings.
As these services have grown, he said, the number of people loitering around the church has also increased.
Freud added that residents have tried to respectfully describe their concerns to shelter leadership, but have continuously been ignored. This left them with no choice but to turn to the city with complaints, he said.
“We were trying to get the church to step up and advocate for some of our concerns and respond to those,” he said. “They haven’t done that.”
Hodge said the church shares many of the same concerns as residents about drug use and other issues on Bradford Street. He does not, however, appreciate neighbors blaming the problems on the shelter.
“They’ve targeted us as a convenient way to say, ‘This is all the fault of the People’s Church because they feed people,’” Hodge said.
Freud said he and his neighbors were taken aback when they learned the shelter was seeking roughly $50,000 in city funding to expand its services. They felt compelled to stop the services from growing even more, he said.
Many of the complaint letters sent to the city shared similar sentiments. Residents said they understood the value of the shelter’s services, but they could not endure more blight in their neighborhood.
“We have watched as our beloved neighborhood has turned from a safe, clean and vibrant neighborhood to an open-air drug market, safe haven for human trafficking and prostitution,” one resident, whose name was redacted, wrote to the city on Feb. 4.
City leaders offer few solutions
Discussions about the People’s Church come directly after city council members spent nearly five months debating a proposal to ban panhandling in Delaware’s capital city. The proposal itself was billed as an ordinance to improve pedestrian safety, but debates surrounding the idea largely focused on poverty and homelessness.
Opponents of the panhandling ban called on city leaders to propose solutions to the homelessness crisis in the city instead of “criminalizing poverty.”
Since the start of that panhandling debate, which began in October 2025, city council members have not introduced any ordinances aimed at providing more resources to combat homelessness and drug use.
Dover City Council President Fred Neil declined to discuss the People’s Church with Spotlight Delaware by phone.
In an emailed statement, however, Neil wrote the city does not have the authority to spend money on “health care, education, or social services.”
“This is not a Dover city problem,” Neil said. “This is a Delaware problem.”
While city council will not have a direct say in the fate of the People’s Church shelter — the final decision on its application to continue overnight operations rests with the city’s Planning Commission — eight members of the nine-member council have expressed concern about the shelter.
“City council, in my view, does not shut down any place,” Councilman Roy Sudler told Spotlight Delaware. “They shut themselves down by not being in compliance.”
The ninth council member, Gerald Rocha, has recused himself from votes on the shelter because he serves on the organization’s board.
The shelter’s plan
The People’s Church has a 14-day grace period in which it can continue operating the overnight shelter before it must obtain the conditional use approval to stay open, Neil said.
Because of the two-week buffer, Hodge, the church’s pastor, said it will continue providing overnight beds until the winter shelter season officially ends on Tuesday, March 31.
The hurdle, he said, will be receiving approval for next winter’s season.
The People’s Church will continue providing daily meals throughout the year, but it only offers overnight shelter for men between Dec. 1 to March 31.
As things currently stand, Hodge said the church’s application to maintain overnight operations would “surely be denied.”
He is hopeful, however, the church can convince city leaders to change their minds about the application by showing “an outpouring of public support” for the shelter.
Nearly 20 people spoke at the most recent city council meeting on March 23, including volunteers at the shelter and individuals who use the shelter’s services, in favor of the People’s Church during a public comment period that lasted an hour and 20 minutes.
Hodge added that courts have “consistently upheld” a religious group’s right to engage in ministry — which he said includes providing community services. That right, he said, supersedes a city’s authority over zoning. He is confident that legal action would end with a victory for the church.
“There is no legal justification to shut us down,” Hodge said.
After making it through the end of the Code Purple winter season, Hodge said he plans to submit a zoning application this summer to allow the church to continue its overnight shelter operations. It remains unclear if the city will approve that application.
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/.
