Why Should Delaware Care?
Housing costs are rising in Delaware, leading to strained budgets, longer commutes and an increase in the homeless population. The most ambitious bill to tackle the issue this session has passed the Senate and now faces a tight margin to pass the House.
The Delaware House of Representatives will vote on a controversial affordable housing bill Tuesday, and it will need bipartisan support to pass.
Senate Bill 23, dubbed “The Housing for Every Delawarean Act,” would require most localities to allow more townhomes, apartments and other dense types of housing, along with adopting other measures to make homes more affordable.
Delaware is facing a shortage of affordable housing. Half of renters in the state are defined as “cost-burdened,” meaning they pay more than what they can reasonably afford for housing.
“We know that without action, housing costs will continue to rise, and more Delawareans will struggle to find homes that they can afford,” said bill cosponsor Rep. Kendra Johnson (D-Bear) at the House Housing Committee meeting last week.
But many local government officials oppose SB 23 because they see it as part of an erosion of local control, a long-running point of tension between local governments and the Delaware legislature.
“This is the same old, same old,” Kent County Levy Court Commissioner Allan Angel said. “I don’t think we’re ever really asked what we would like to have.”
The bill cleared the State Senate last week purely on party lines, but it will need some House Republicans to reach the two-thirds majority vote it requires.
Despite general Republican opposition to the bill, two New Castle County Republicans have signed the bill as co-sponsors: Reps. Kevin Hensley and Michael Smith. Still, House Minority Leader Tim Dukes (R-Laurel) said his party will try to come to a consensus on how they will vote.
“I think we all want affordable housing, but we have different ideas and methods about how to get there,” he told Spotlight Delaware.
Gov. Matt Meyer’s office said he supports the bill, meaning the House vote will likely be the final hurdle for its passage.
Local control concerns reemerge
Many local government officials across the state have spoken out strongly against the bill, while affordable housing advocates, healthcare organizations and building trades representatives have expressed support.
Local leaders take issue with the state trying to implement what they describe as a one-size-fits-all approach to affordable housing, when each locality has specific infrastructure, public safety, and other community needs that can’t be captured in the bill.
“The zoning requirements in Laurel are different than the zoning requirements in, say, Smyrna, which are different than the zoning requirements in Kent County, and they’re lumping all of those into the same basket,” Kent County Levy Court Commissioner Jody Sweeney said.
The bill also requires that some areas of a municipality allow dense housing like apartments or townhomes to be built without a public hearing.
Janelle Cornwell, executive director of the Delaware League of Local Governments, said this provision “takes away the voice of the public.”
“It takes away the transparency and the public input for development applications, it takes away the ability for neighbors to improve an application,” she said.
Jon Horner, president of the Home Builders Association of Delaware, argued that the public would still be able to comment through public meetings. He also said that people often use the public hearing process to stop or delay housing projects.
Some of the disagreement also comes down to how “affordable” housing is defined.
Sussex County Councilman Steve McCarron said he opposes the bill because it requires local municipalities to increase allowed housing density without requiring any of those homes to be income-restricted.
The Sussex County Council recently approved some long-anticipated reforms, which include allowing a higher rent threshold and more density within the county’s affordable housing program.
McCarron argued denser housing and the population increase it would bring would put a strain on the county’s infrastructure without bringing any homes that are truly affordable for low-income people.
“It’s a hope and a dream that we’re going to get affordable units out of this,” McCarron said.
But Sen. Russ Huxtable (D-Lewes), who sponsored the bill, said that smaller homes and apartments are inherently more affordable than single-family homes. And currently, it is easier for developers to build single-family homes in much of Sussex County because of restrictive zoning laws.
Some localities also point to Senate Joint Resolution 8 – signed into law by Gov. Matt Meyer last August – which created a pilot program for a handful of municipalities to receive free, technical assistance to include more affordable housing in their zoning and land use codes, as a reason that SB 23 is not necessary right now.
Gene Dvornick, the town manager in Georgetown, one of the jurisdictions participating in the technical assistance program, said he doesn’t think it makes sense to introduce another affordable housing mandate given how recently SJR8 was implemented.
“Sometimes it’s better to wait and see. Trying something was SJR8,” Dvornick told Spotlight Delaware. “Let’s see the results of that.”
Brian Frazee, president and CEO of the Delaware Healthcare Association, which represents that state’s hospital systems, said his organization supports SB 23 because it is currently difficult for healthcare workers to find housing that they can afford.
Sonya Starr, representing the Delaware Affordable Housing Coalition, said that’s not a unique problem in healthcare.
She cited statistics from the National Low Income Housing Coalition that show that the Delaware minimum wage is only enough to cover a rent of $780 per month. And workers making less than $32 an hour cannot afford the average cost of a two-bedroom apartment.
“What we’re hoping is that this bill will allow the people we need to work here… to also live and thrive here,” Starr said.
