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 dollars directly to people struggling to secure housing.
A divide between the Wilmington City Council and Mayor John Carney over affordable housing spending is intensifying, with council members pushing forward a competing housing initiative that they say would help more low-income residents at a lower cost to the city.
During a Thursday meeting, council members discussed the initiative, which would create new housing assistance programs, including eviction-prevention aid and homeowner repair grants.
To incentivize development, the 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. The city would then ask the state to match the city’s contribution to the trust fund.
In all, the $12.5 million plan was presented as an alternative to Carney’s proposed $20 million housing initiative, which relies on subsidizing developers to build affordable housing.
If passed, the measures could be funded through the upcoming city budget.
The competing initiative has been spearheaded by council members Christian Willauer, Shané Darby, and Coby Owens. WIllauer called it a more “fiscally responsible” way to carry out housing.
“The big difference between what the city has proposed and what council members are working on is that we are trying to address different sets of housing issues, we’re trying to have a greater impact with more people with less money,” Willauer told Spotlight Delaware.
Daniel Walker, Carney’s deputy chief of staff, previously said the proposed amendment would increase long-term costs for city residents. He also said it relies unrealistically on still-uncommitted state government dollars.
Carney’s office did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
Thursday’s meeting follows weeks of council scrutiny of Carney’s plan, which he unveiled during his budget address in March. In the budget speech, Carney noted that the city had added 4,000 new housing units since 2016 – 800 of which were affordable.
“It’s time to build on that progress,” he said then.
But during past week’s meetings, council members pressed officials from the mayor’s office about whether his plan would do enough to help low-income and current Wilmington residents.
They also expressed skepticism over whether it would create opportunities for minority developers, and whether the city should be spending such a large amount from its reserves for a one-time initiative.
“We need a lot more details and guardrails on any spending around the construction of affordable housing,” Willauer said during a meeting last month.
Housing and homelessness
During the Thursday council meeting, Darby proposed a measure to create the Housing Trust Fund, which she said she has been working on for the past few years.
The fund would aim to support the development of more affordable housing, create supportive housing for the homeless, and fund programs to help residents become homeowners, among other measures.
The legislation would also establish a community advisory board made up of representatives from neighborhood-based housing groups, landlords, and people who have struggled to find housing. The board would work with the mayor’s office and council to help make recommendations about how the money should be used.
During the meeting, a debate over the Housing Trust Fund quickly collided with concerns over the Christina Park homeless encampment. Last week, the city notified residents of the city’s only sanctioned homeless encampment that they must leave by June 15.
“I’m for anything that y’all can do to help those people out, to get them into permanent housing, and whatever you can do to stop the evictions until everybody down there gets housing,” said one resident, Lip Betley, during the meeting.
Several other residents and advocates used public comment to support the council’s initiatives, while also questioning how the city can close the encampment before more long-term housing options are available.
One Christina Park resident told the council he was working to secure housing but needed paperwork from Social Security, with an appointment scheduled after the park’s closure deadline.
He said the timing could leave him with nowhere to go for several days.
“Until then, I literally have no place to live,” the resident said.
Beyond herself and Willauer, Darby said the measure has support from council members Owens and Alex Hackett, as well as Council President Trippi Congo.
Willauer also proposed three separate bills related to the alternative housing plan, including an eviction settlement program that would make one-time payments to help tenants avoid eviction.
Lisa Lessner, who coordinates Delaware’s right-to-representation program, said Wilmington saw an estimated 7,000 to 8,000 eviction filings in the past year. She and Jennifer Perez, managing attorney for Community Legal Aid Society’s housing unit, said that small settlement payments can often help resolve cases quickly, especially when a tenant owes a limited amount of back rent.
Perez also noted that the funding matters because eviction cases move quickly once they are filed. The money would help attorneys negotiate settlements before tenants lose their homes.
In a letter to the council, Cerron Cade, Carney’s chief of staff, said the administration could not support the measure because it relies on a fixed list of legal aid agencies, which could discriminate against smaller nonprofits.
He also noted that it does not require financial counseling or case management to prevent repeat evictions and does not ensure that funds would go directly toward back rent or eviction settlements.
Other housing proposals
Separate from the council’s housing plan, Darby also discussed an ordinance, to create an online rental registry, which would require landlords to register properties with the city and update the information regularly.
The goal is to give city officials better enforcement and oversight of the rental properties in Wilmington.
Darby said the measure has support from the mayor’s office.
Hackett also proposed a pilot program to help eligible Wilmington residents cover the upfront cost of moving into a rental unit. The measure would allow the Department of Real Estate and Housing to provide up to $2,000 in assistance.
