Sussex County is grappling with a variety of land use issues, including the lack of affordable housing.
The Delaware State Housing Authority offered Sussex County officials a snapshot of how unaffordable and impractical housing costs are in the county at the Council meeting Tuesday.
The median salary in Sussex County was about $71 thousand in 2023, according to Delaware State Housing Authority chief strategy advisor Caitlin Del Collo.
DSHA defines affordable housing as a housing budget of no more than 30% of one’s monthly income, which includes utilities and insurance. That means affordable housing for those making the median salary in Sussex is $1,780.
And Del Collo said while there’s a steep shortage of affordable units overall, those making less than the median income are especially affected.
“Unless you're making 120% AMI, you are gonna have a really, really hard time finding a house that you could afford to buy in 2022. So, if we were able to build more diverse housing, more cheaply, we could help more people become homeowners,” Del Collo said.
That disproportionately affects people of color. About 81% of white Delawareans are homeowners, while 51% of Black Delawareans own homes, according to Del Collo. She also said Black households typically have less wealth, meaning they’re less able to buy the single family detached homes that are available even if they make 120% of the median salary.
In western Sussex, there’s a 971-unit shortage of affordable housing for people making 0-30% of the median income. Eastern Sussex is short almost 1200 units.
Del Collo said a big part of the issue is the type of housing being built in Sussex, which is largely single family detached homes.
“Other housing types can be significantly cheaper to occupy as a renter and as a homeowner, but that's not helpful if they don't exist in the first place. And we are as a state, sort of doubling down on this single family detached,” Del Collo said.
85% of residential building permits in 2021 were for single family detached homes. Del Collo said that encourages and exacerbates sprawl. Building attached homes in the form of townhomes or row homes takes up less space.
Del Collo argued Sussex County should consider changing zoning regulations to allow more and smaller single family homes to be built.
Sussex County is in the process of forming a working group to address this and other land use issues.
