State leaders convene to discuss the feasibility of creating a Hope Center in Kent County to provide more support for unhoused people and those facing opioid addiction.
The New Castle County Hope Center is a hotel-turned-homeless shelter that opened in December 2020 in an effort to get unhoused people safe from the winter weather and COVID-19 pandemic.
The county-owned facility has since evolved into not only a property that provides emergency housing, but one that offers a more holistic and connected model of care.
Continuity and connectivity of care is something State Sen. Eric Buckson (R-Dover) is looking to bring to Central Delaware after seeing the success of the Hope Center model in New Castle County.
According to data from the Delaware Environmental Public Health Tracking Network, the Dover-area 19901 ZIP code ranked the fifth-highest area for suspected overdose deaths in 2023 at 80 deaths per 100,000 people.
The Wilmington-area 19801 ZIP code retained the highest number of suspected overdose deaths in 2023 at 235 per 100,000 people.
Megan Cox with Kent County Emergency Medical Services explains while overdose deaths are trending downwards, non-fatal overdoses have been increasing.
"Back in 2024, our average monthly overdose number was in the 30s. So far for the year 2025 we're averaging about 50," Cox said.
Sen. Buckson and several stakeholders recently toured the Hope Center, as well as the Pallet Village in Georgetown — a group of tiny homes that provide shelter and community support for unhoused people.
He notes ChristianaCare's presence at the Hope Center and Beebe Health's presence at the Pallet Village, and he hopes Bayhealth could be involved in a similar care-provision fashion in Dover.
Bayhealth's Chief Strategy Officer John Van Gorp says this is an idea the hospital's leadership team has been entertaining for awhile, especially with more than 30 patients currently staying at the hospital who he says do not "need to be there," but have no safe alternative housing options.
"I think there is some, some definite opportunities here for us to explore — providing support to the homeless side of the equation and then providing also support equally to to our patients that are in the hospital that are utilizing beds that otherwise would go to people that actually truly need to be in a short-term acute care hospital," Van Gorp said.
Noticing a "for lease" sign in front of the Dover Inn off Dupont Highway, Sen. Buckson is pitching this location as a potential care/housing facility in Kent County.
"It would be interesting if we could, as a state, look at that as sort of a Hope Center and utilize the space to house some folks that are sick on the streets but also take up a few of those spaces for continuity and connectivity of care like we saw at the Hope Center where they had 2 or 3 rooms dedicated to almost a a hospital-like setting," Sen. Buckson said.
The senator also suggested the Kent County Family Court Building on 400 Court St. — which is being replaced by a new $117.7 million building at the corner of South Governors Avenue and Water Street — as a potential location for a continuity of care facility.
Sen. Buckson says while pitching the idea to other lawmakers, he received "not in my backyard" type of responses due to the building's proximity to Legislative Hall and other prominent government buildings.
But Sen. Buckson and Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice C.J. Seitz both agree homelessness and opioid usage is prevalent in that area of Dover, and the chief justice called it the "perfect place" to act as a central location for care services.
Chief Justice Seitz says while he knows other state agencies are competing for the old court house space, he believes Sen. Buckson's argument is a reasonable one: "It is adjacent to a neighborhood where a lot of people in that neighborhood would be using these services, and frankly, might be a huge improvement to the quality of life in that area."
In addition to state-led efforts, retired financial advisor Doug Ferris is working with some healthcare professionals to bring a full-service detox center to Dover.
He says with no viable existing retail locations on the market, he's looking at building an 18,000 square-foot facility that would house 60 to 80 beds.
While this facility would be a private-run business, Ferris expressed interest in working with state not only for financial support, but also in permitting support to get the facility up and running as quickly as possible.
As far as next steps, Sen. Buckson says he plans to get more elected officials on board to ensure these plans come to fruition.
In the interim, he hopes to help facilitate more conversations between Kent County stakeholders in the healthcare and housing space on how to improve these quality of services across the board.
