‘Our city is struggling’: Wilmington City Council members unveil affordability agenda to help residents deal with rising costs

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Three Wilmington City Council members used the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday to launch a comprehensive affordability agenda.

Coby Owens, Shané Darby, and Christian Willauer laid out a plan to help homeowners, renters and people experiencing homelessness by tackling high rents, water bill shutoffs and property reassessment errors.

“We’re here to talk about a dream that Dr. King had when he died,” Owens said during a news conference Monday morning in Wilmington. “He was fighting for better wages for our community. He was fighting for unions to build stronger institutions, and we want to continue that dream.”

Owens said the city of Wilmington faces a crisis due to a combination of poverty and rising costs.

“Our city is struggling, and I’ll be very blunt and honest about it,” he said. “Every single day, residents are waking up trying to figure out how to make ends meet. The message is clear across the board: Wilmington is becoming unaffordable for way too many people.”

The agenda includes introducing bills for City Council to consider this year and as part of the budget process.

Housing priorities top the list

Council members said rent stabilization, which is when rent hikes are regulated, will be a big focus.

Darby tried unsuccessfully to push rent stabilization through the council last year. This year, she said she and community activists hope to instead gather signatures for a public referendum so voters can decide the issue. They plan to try to collect about 6,000 signatures, with about 200 gathered to date.

“We didn’t have enough people on city council who cared about affordability, who cared about keeping people housed in the city of Wilmington,” Darby said.

Darby added she will also be offering a proposal for the city to provide grants to build housing for families with low income and working families.

Darby added she will also be offering a proposal for the city to provide grants to build housing for working families and those with low income.

“Right now we’re seeing the city tax breaks and incentives go towards luxury apartment developments starting at $1,500- $1,600 for a studio, and too often, those developments require none of them to produce affordable units,” she said.

There’s also a plan to create an eviction program to help at-risk residents.

“Many people are one unexpected expense away from getting behind on the rent,” Willhauer said. “That’s why we’re trying to create an eviction prevention program that can help people catch up with late payments and stay housed. It’s a way we can help families stay stable and prevent homelessness.”

Other housing initiatives include requiring pre-rental inspections to ensure rental units are safe, creating more shelter beds for people experiencing homelessness and creating a housing trust fund to build more rental homes people can afford.

“Letting people live on the street and in parks is not going to work,” Owens said. “It’s cruel.”

Wilmington Mayor John Carney announced last fall that his administration would allow an encampment to remain in the Eastside park, but will ban all other encampments. The nonprofit group Friendship House was tapped to assume daily oversight of the area.

Preventing water shutoffs for past due bills

Ever-rising utility costs are driving Wilmington families into crisis situations, Darby said.

Delmarva Power, an energy company serving 344,000 residential and nonresidential customers in the state, recently requested an overall revenue increase in electric base rates totaling $67.8 million, with an actual impact of $44.6 million on utility bills. That would amount to a 4.13% increase, or about $6.42 on an average residential customer’s bill, starting in July, subject to approval by the Delaware Public Service Commission.

The north Wilmington councilwoman said while electricity bills are not controlled by the city, water bills are. Darby said she’s been working for five years to stop the city from disconnecting residents’ water and taking homes because of past due bills. Her measure would prohibit water shutoffs for families with elderly members, children, or a person with a disability residing with them.

It’s unclear if the three council members can muster enough support from other council members. They would need a minimum of seven of the 13 members to vote ‘yes’ on their agenda items and Carney’s approval.