‘Both arbitrary and cruel’: Critics blast Wilmington mayor for evicting people experiencing homelessness from area park

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Wilmington Mayor John Carney addressed his decision to close the city’s only officially sanctioned homeless encampment during a signing ceremony for the fiscal year 2027 budget.

People living in Christina Park’s tent village woke up earlier this month to police officers and staff from the Friendship House, a nonprofit group that manages the encampment, handing out eviction notices. 

Wilmington officials just started giving out city-issued tents to park residents in April, roughly 30 days before serving the removal notices. 

Camping will be banned at the park after June 15. Sleeping outside is also banned in all other areas of the city.

Some have called the decision “cruel” because city officials are kicking the residents out of the park after encouraging them to go there. They are also blasting the city for failing to develop a plan to help people at the park find alternative housing options, like emergency shelter beds. 

Among those who have denounced the evictions is the newly established Wilmington City Council subcommittee on homelessness, which recently sent a letter to Carney opposing the camp’s closure.

“The approach taken by your administration in addressing homelessness, including this most recent decision to abruptly evict residents, appears both arbitrary and cruel,” the letter stated.

Subcommittee Chair Tony Sierzega, who is also an eviction defense attorney with Community Legal Aid Society, said they would like the mayor’s office to rescind the June 15 deadline to ban camping.

“We all acknowledge that tents in Christina Park are not a real or safe long-term solution to help the folks out there, but, frankly, it’s better than nothing,” Sierzega said. “Then to just have that taken away, seemingly without a plan. It’s just really discouraging.”

Carney said those who say his decision was cruel “don’t understand the issue.”

The mayor reiterated that the Christina Park tent village was always meant to be temporary, and that nonprofit organizations and the Wilmington Police Department have been giving people at the park alternate housing options.

The $213.5 million budget Carney signed off on Friday provides tens of millions of dollars in funding for housing initiatives, including subsidizing rental units, addressing vacant lots and needs-based home repairs. It also has $1.4 million for nonprofits to provide eviction prevention, counseling and rental assistance.

The budget doesn’t include emergency shelter beds. Carney said that’s what park residents need, which in his view, is not a city responsibility.

“They’re not in a position where they’re going to be able to compete for the projects that we’re trying to do to stabilize neighborhoods,” Carney said. “That’s where the state and federal assistance is really critically important.”

Local housing and criminal justice advocates have been protesting Carney, trying to get him to support rent stabilization and increase emergency and transitional shelters, and permanent supportive housing units.

The mayor, so far appearing to be unconvinced, criticized their tactics. 

“They were protesting in front of my house this morning at 7:30 [a.m.], banging on trash can lids and with a microphone, waking up the neighbors,” he said. “Which just strikes me as not a good way to have a conversation over priorities.”