Why Should Delaware Care?
Homelessness and its rippling impacts have plagued municipalities across Delaware over the past year, from Wilmington to Georgetown. But a planned Hope Center-like homeless shelter in Kent County could breathe new resources into a region where experts say they are sorely lacking.
Delaware officials have reached an agreement to convert hundreds of Delaware State University dorms into a new homeless shelter modeled after the New Castle County Hope Center.
Gov. Matt Meyer and the Delaware State Housing authority announced last Thursday that the state would officially purchase the dorms, one month after Spotlight Delaware reported about ongoing negotiations over the property.
The Kent County Hope Center will be funded by federal grant money Delaware received last year to expand rural healthcare access. Pending a final contract, the state housing authority will purchase the dorms for more than $11 million, according to a June 11 press release announcing the venture.
“We must provide Delaware’s most vulnerable with safe, stable shelter with dignity, providing real hope for a brighter tomorrow,” Meyer said in the release. “The Kent County Hope Center will provide comprehensive services to address the root causes of those in our community who are most in need.”
The new endeavor would stand up a government-run homeless shelter in a county that advocates say sorely lacks services. It would also follow months of controversy in Delaware’s capital city about how leaders should address a growing homeless population.
The shelter will be located about a mile from Delaware’s second-largest higher education institution, inside a 132,000 square-foot building that currently houses DSU students and a charter high school.
In 2013, DSU purchased a Sheraton hotel on North DuPont Highway for $12 million, later converting it into student housing. The building is now called the “Living and Learning Commons.” It also houses the Delaware State University Early College High School, a charter school offering students the chance to earn a high school diploma and up to 60 hours of college credit.
Delaware State Housing Authority Director Matthew Heckles described the services the new shelter will provide – including fresh food and on-site medical care – as preventative tools to avoid homelessness and assets for the community at-large.
“We want this to not only be about the people who are living there… But we want it to be about making sure the community, more broadly, gets access to a different kind of series of services,” Heckles said during a presentation before the Dover City Council on June 9.
According to Delaware’s most recent homelessness point-in-time count, there are 277 homeless people in Kent County. But Heckles warned that this number is inaccurate, since it only counted people inside shelters.
During the presentation, he said the Hope Center will have 160 rooms, including suites that could accommodate larger families.
The state’s original project timeline put the Kent County Hope Center on track to open this fall, but Heckles told Dover City Council members it would take 12 to 18 months for the center to be “fully functional.”
That timeline change is largely due to the length of the real estate transaction followed by renovations to the building, a housing authority spokesperson told Spotlight Delaware.
