Why Should Delaware Care?
In his second year in office, Wilmington Mayor John Carney says he will double down on encouraging affordable housing in Delaware’s largest city. But several council members, concerned about how new money would be spent, are supporting an alternative proposal to send more dollars directly to people struggling to secure housing.
After weeks of scrutiny into Wilmington Mayor John Carney’s proposed $20 million affordable housing initiative, the City Council has introduced an alternative plan that would reduce the amount of money available for subsidies to developers.
The new plan, introduced by Councilwoman Christian Willauer as an amendment to Carney’s initiative, calls for redistributing many of those dollars into various programs to directly support people struggling to secure housing.
During a council meeting Tuesday, Willauer said her proposal aims to address residents’ immediate needs. It also reduces the amount of money used from the city’s savings accounts and provides safeguards around the dollars that would be sent to developers, she said.
“We need a lot more details and guardrails on any spending around the construction of affordable housing,” Willauer said.
Willauer’s skepticism of Carney’s plan highlights persistent ideological divisions between the mayor’s office and a faction of the City Council over how the city should address its housing crisis.
It also sets up what could become the latest policy standoff between the two sides, following previous contention over rent stabilization, tenant protections and homelessness.
In response to Willauer’s alternative plan, Carney’s deputy chief of staff, Daniel Walker, said her amendment relies on funding commitments that would ultimately increase long-term costs for city residents. He also said it unrealistically relies on still-uncommitted dollars from the state government.
“It believes a $10 million match from the state will magically materialize,” Walker said in a statement to Spotlight Delaware.
Carney’s and Willauer’s competing proposals also come in the wake of calls from some housing advocates for the city to direct money to rental assistance and to services for the city’s unhoused population.
But Walker has also pushed back on that approach, saying rental assistance may provide short-term relief but does not increase the city’s supply of affordable housing. He also reiterated the mayor’s longstanding stance that homeless services should not be funded through the city.
How do the plans compare?
During a city council meeting on Tuesday, Walker sat alongside Wilmington housing director, Bob Weir, to provide a presentation of Carney’s original affordable housing plan, which would draw $20 million from the city’s Tax Stabilization Reserve.
Their comments came more than a month after Carney first unveiled the plan during his budget address for the City of Wilmington.
They noted Tuesday that most of that money – $16.8 million – would fund subsidies to developers to incentivize the construction of around 200 affordable homes. Walker said the incentives would offset construction costs and also leverage private investment.
The affordable units would target households making between 60% and 80% of the area median income, as defined under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development standards. In Wilmington, that would translate roughly to households that earn between $1,434 and $1,910 monthly.
Of the remaining dollars from the initiative, about $2 million would fund the preparation of vacant lots for development. Another $500,000 would be used for architectural design and engineering, and another $500,000 would go to the Wilmington Neighborhood Conservancy Land Bank.
In contrast, Willauer’s plan would direct several chunks of $500,000 into a litany of programs, including emergency rental assistance; first and last month rental assistance; eviction prevention; a homeowner repair program; and a fund to fix property tax assessment errors.
To incentivize development, Willauer’s plan would also allocate at least $10 million into a city housing trust fund to be overseen by the City Council and the mayor’s office. Willauer said the joint oversight would allow both bodies to decide where and how the money would be spent.
WIllauer’s plan would cost the city a total of $12.5 million. It also involves asking the state to match that investment.
During Tuesday’s meeting, several council members expressed support for the alternative plan, which Willauer said had been developed with the help of Councilmembers Shané Darby and Coby Owens.
Councilman Alex Hackett called it “a compromise that needs to be made here.”
Several council members also raised concerns during the meeting about the mayor’s proposal. They questioned Walker and Weir over whether the plan is specific enough, whether it does enough to help current Wilmington residents, and whether the city should spend such a large amount from its reserves without more detail.
Separately, Council members Zanthia Oliver and Ernest “Trippi” Congo stressed what they said was a need for clearer guarantees that Wilmington residents and minority developers would have access to the construction opportunities tied to the program.
Owens challenged the administration’s argument that rental assistance would duplicate state and federal programs, saying the city is already proposing to stack its housing development money with other state and federal development funds.
“Why not try to do both?” Owens asked, adding that rental assistance, if done correctly, could help residents stay in their homes.
Will the money be for big or small developers?
Tuesday’s meeting came about a week after another meeting in which City Council members similarly interrogated the Carney administration over its housing plan. During that meeting of the council’s Finance Committee, more than a dozen city residents also occupied the council chamber’s gallery to hold signs making clear their opposition to plan.
During the meeting, council members peppered Weir with questions about the city’s previous housing initiatives they said did not produce what had been promised. Many also voiced concerns that the developer incentive would be directed primarily to the most prominent developers in the city.
Willauer opened her questions of Weir by stating that she has several “concerns about the $20 million.” She then asked how city officials would define “small” and “large” developers, and how much money each could receive under Carney’s plan.
“Do you anticipate that $10 million would be for larger developers and $6 million for smaller developers? Or do you anticipate that it’s going to be $15 million for large developers and $1 million for small developers? “ Willauer asked.
Weir in response said he could only guess what the ultimate breakdown would be. He did note his expectation that the largest developers to receive city dollars would likely be nonprofit companies.
City spokesperson Caroline Klinger later indicated that Wilmington’s most influential developer, Buccini/Pollin Group, would not likely be involved in the affordable housing project.
“Currently, BPG does not develop affordable housing, nor have they approached us about doing so,” Klinger said in a statement to Spotlight Delaware.
