After eight months of operation, the Hope Center now focuses on setting residents up with an “exit strategy.” One piece of this—finding permanent housing—remains a challenge.
As a contractor for New Castle County, Dana Mitchell focuses on finding apartments or houses for Hope Center residents to move into.
“I not only talk to landlords one-on-one but I’m also on various social media platforms or websites to see what is out there that is affordable, and then just being an advocate for the Hope Center guests,” she said.
But finding affordable units can be difficult, especially in the current market.
“There is a shortage as far as rentals across the country as well as in New Castle County,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell works to build relationships with landlords and let them know that Hope Center residents can be good tenants, and come with a range of support services behind them.
Nicole Waters is director of operations at the Hope Center and has worked on housing issues at the County for years. She says one thing in Hope Center residents’ favor is that they have access to many different services under one roof.
“You have a housing locator,” she said, “and then you have the rapid rehousing person that she can pass off a unit to and can assist them with the security deposit and the rental assistance. And then you may have Friendship House that can say, you need these items and we can help you with that as well.”
This year's point-in-time count showed an increase in homelessness in Delaware during the pandemic.
Local housing experts say a primary driver of homelessness is a longstanding shortage of affordable housing in the First State.
This story has been updated.
