There was broad agreement on the need to increase the number of housing units in the state, but achieving that long term goal requires a set of shorter term objectives. Rachel Strucker, executive director of the Housing Alliance Delaware, shared her expertise and expressed her support for some of Rieman’s legislative proposals.

“Short term, we can take action to address land use issues, make sure that our local municipalities, counties and at the state level, that folks are educated about what can be done to relieve some of the pressure on the market, [and] make building more quick,” she said. “Make sure more units can be built that can be at the affordable level and something we can do pretty quickly is just infuse more state funding into affordable housing development, which will help bring these projects online more quickly at a lower cost.”

Even those with good-paying jobs often find their hourly wages insufficient. She stated that individuals need to earn $25 an hour to afford a modest one-bedroom apartment. According to her presentation, that’s often challenging for those employed as secretaries, clerks, construction workers and education professionals, all of whom struggle to afford such housing.

As the cost of living rises, many are forced into couch surfing and sharing living space, or facing the risk of homelessness.

“Over the last couple of years, at the same time that we’ve seen rents increase dramatically since 2020, we’re seeing homelessness also increase dramatically,” she added. “Those things are connected. They’re not an accident. They just don’t happen to be happening at the same time. And so that’s what we’re really concerned about.”

Last month, a comprehensive housing assessment got underway to generate recommendations to improve the housing situation.

“One big piece of the solution is our Delaware Housing Task Force,” said Cynthia Karnai, executive director of the Delaware State Housing Authority. That group “is bringing together the experts in the field to come up with recommendations that we can perhaps put into action in the next couple years to make sure that we’re meeting the need.”

Those recommendations are scheduled to be delivered in March 2025.