Why Should Delaware Care?
With the closure of Wilmington’s sanctioned homeless encampment, city officials were considering sponsoring a tiny-home village initiative, in partnership with the nonprofit, Springboard Delaware. The plan relied on COVID-era dollars, but those funds have since been lost.
Wilmington officials lost $1.6 million in federal COVID-era relief funding after failing to finalize plans for a tiny home village prior to a state deadline to spend the money.
The development comes after weeks of conversations among city officials and residents over whether the city should move forward with the project to provide the housing assistance to Wilmington’s growing homeless population.
In a statement to Spotlight Delaware, Caroline Klinger, a spokeswoman for Mayor John Carney, expressed disappointment at the missed deadline. She also said the city would assess “options for supporting the unhoused and investing in affordable housing options while striking a balance that also respects the rights of surrounding residents.”
Despite the missed funding deadline, Judson Malone — director of the city’s nonprofit partner, Springboard Delaware — said the proposal is not completely off the table. He said his organization will need more time to restructure itself financially before pursuing the Wilmington location.
“One source of financing we lost for capital, but we are developing other sources for capital. It’ll take us some time to put that deal together, but we’re still coming,” Malone said.
Asked about Malone’s statement, Klinger said that while the city is open to working with the nonprofit, “major unanswered questions” remain, including where the tiny home village could be built and how it would be funded over the long term.
The collapse of the tiny-home village plans also came just weeks after city officials evicted residents living at a homeless encampment at Christina Park, which Carney created last fall.
Most of the residents were provided housing for up to 90 days at various other facilities. But advocates have expressed concern about where the individuals will end up after that.
A dispute over the deadline
Last month, Carney’s administration placed the responsibility for selecting a site for the tiny home village with the City Council.
According to the Delaware Department of Finance, the city had until June 19 to secure a location and the necessary approvals in order to use $1.6 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding.
But city officials hoped for more time. Klinger said a state official had verbally told city officials that their deadline to identify a site could be July 1. Finance department officials say that is inaccurate.
Nevertheless, the city then sent a request to formally extend the deadline to use the $1.6 million, stating the city needed additional time to secure land-use approvals and finalize a location.
Delaware Secretary of Finance Michael Smith denied the city’s request, citing the strict federal requirements to administer the funds.
“Springboard Delaware could not obtain the required permits needed by the agreed-upon deadline of June 19, 2026, and therefore the project will be cancelled,” Smith said.
State officials said the $1.6 million will now be redirected to another entity, but did not want to identify the recipient before the U.S. Treasury approves the reallocation.
Asked why the city failed to meet the deadline, Klinger emphasized the lack of community support. She said the federal government’s schedule for spending the dollars “did not allow the time necessary to work with communities and get the proper support.”
“Our office identified potential locations for consideration by City Council and the Mayor always maintained that those sites would need to move forward with support from the surrounding community,” she said.
City Councilman Coby Owens, who sat on Carney’s homelessness task force last year, said communication between the mayor’s office and council could have been better. He also noted that the full council was never able to have a conversation about selecting the location.
“It just highlights again that when we’re not seeing eye-to-eye, the only people who are negatively impacted are some of our more vulnerable communities, and that’s not fair for any of us to play these games,” Owens said.
What is Springboard Delaware?
Springboard Delaware has spent at least three years looking for a location for their next tiny home village operation, with proposals also in Milford, Newark, and most recently, Dover.
In Wilmington, officials had been in contact with the nonprofit for more than a year. Klinger said last month that talks with Springboard Delaware picked up after the group’s plans to build housing in Dover fell through.
Springboard Delaware currently operates one ‘navigation center’ in Georgetown, providing 40 tiny homes and services to those who are homeless. The site has been in operation for the last three and a half years.
Each home has electricity, a microwave, and a minifridge. Those living in the village also have access to showers, restrooms, laundry, and meals. The case management services include counseling to help people find jobs, healthcare, and permanent housing.
The average stay, according to Springboard Delaware’s website, is around four months. About 40% of the individuals living in the pallet village have transitioned to permanent housing, the website also states.
In June, Springboard Delaware began to attend community meetings in the city, pitching the idea to residents in the Eastside and Southbridge.
Malone noted that a property along Wilmington’s 7th Street Peninsula seemed most feasible, as it was owned by the city and likely would not generate overwhelming community resistance.
But residents quickly rejected the all the proposed locations, arguing it made little sense to build such a project in communities that already lacked resources, Many also expressed fears that a tiny-home village could cause loitering, panhandling, and safety risks to spill into the neighborhood.
“Put them in your neighborhood!” one resident shouted at presenters last month during a Eastside community meeting.
Malone told Spotlight Delaware he believes the narrative around homelessness needs to change, arguing that communities mistakenly believe projects like this would worsen the problem. Instead of pushing unhoused residents elsewhere, he said communities need to accept that they are part of the community and deserve support.
“If every community wants every other community to be responsible for addressing homelessness, I don’t see a path forward to success,” Malone said.
