Why Should Delaware Care?
Housing affordability has become a dramatic problem in Delaware with prices rising more than 50% in the last decade and new studies finding that the state needs thousands of cheaper home options. Those needs are coming at a time of several major state challenges though, and they will compete at a time when forecasts believe government revenues will slow.
An influential panel of Delaware affordable housing advocates argued last week that state lawmakers need to commit tens of millions of additional public dollars toward incentivizing the construction of modest townhouses and apartments.
They also said that municipalities in the state need to reject what they described as NIMBYist urges, and change zoning laws to allow for more of those structures in more areas.
The comments, part of a panel discussion hosted by Spotlight Delaware at its first annual Legislative Summit, came as a response to years of surging housing costs following the onset of the COVID pandemic.
Spotlight Delaware reporter Nick Stonsifer opened the conservation by highlighting a 2023 Delaware State Housing Authority report, which asserted that there were “19,400 too few affordable rental units to meet the needs of people who make $33,200 per year or less.
“A combination of new affordable rental units, rental assistance, and market rate production is needed to address this gap,” the report stated.
The three panelists – which included State Sen. Russ Huxtable (D-Lewes), who sponsored a package of successful housing reforms last year – largely echoed those recommendations.
The other two panelists specifically called on lawmakers to dedicate 1% of Delaware’s operating budget – or more than $60 million annually – toward affordable housing initiatives.
Among those was Dionna Sargent, a community development financing executive, who said the $4 million to $23 million the state had appropriated in recent years was “clearly not enough.”
“If housing is the No. 1 issue here in Delaware, then the state needs to dedicate at least 1% of its revenue,” said Sargent, vice president of community development at Cinnaire, a Michigan-based nonprofit community development company that works in Delaware.
The call for millions more in state funding joins a chorus of increasing demands for Delaware government’s limited dollars from across public service sectors. Also, during the Legislative Summit, a panel of education advocates similarly argued for the state to boost spending on public schools.
And increasing competition for state dollars comes at a time when Delaware budget forecasters predict a slowing growth rate in government revenues in coming years.
Beyond dollars, the housing panel also said municipalities need to create more room for affordable housing developments.
Karen Speakman, executive director of the Dover-based nonprofit development organization NeighborGood Partners – said that while more dollars are needed, the “main thing is zoning.”
She said that current zoning laws leave too little land available for apartments and other more affordable homes to be built. Speakman emphasized that point by discussing a recent project NeighborGood Partners took on in Sussex County, in which it could identify one two properly zoned pieces of land in the entire county.
As a result, developers are forced to petition local governments for individual rezonings or variances, which she said can be a “very difficult process” – an allusion to resident backlashes that often occur in such a situation.
Backlashes to local development are often referred to by the phrase “not in my backyard,” or NIMBY.
“So NIMBYism is tough, right? Not in my backyard. No one wants a field to become housing unless it’s their new house,” Speakman said.
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