Georgetown officials sparred over the issue of people experiencing homelessness at a recent meeting.
Although homelessness wasn’t on the meeting’s agenda, public comments turned to the town’s population of unhoused people, with members of the public urging officials to do more to crack down on what they allege is a wave of petty crime and substance abuse.
But Georgetown Mayor Bill West said there wasn’t much town leaders could do, instead pointing the finger at state officials and the court system.
“All these homeless people that go out and commit minor trespassing crimes or local shoplifting, the AG's office is now ‘nolle prossing’ [declining to prosecute], letting them go right back on the streets," he said.
West said that local officials were largely powerless to change much.
“Our hands are tied, people. I don't like it no more than you do," he said. "But for me to sit here and say we're going to put them on the bus and run them out of town, that's lawsuits. Who's going to end up paying for that lawsuit? The taxpayers of the town of Georgetown.”
That led to a testy exchange with Fourth Ward Councilman Penuel Barrett.
“The only thing I'm saying - it's time to wake up and do something," Barrett said. "Who cares about the lawsuit? Let's make something happen."
"I do when it starts coming out of people's wallets," West retorted.
A statewide Point in Time count from 2024 showed that while Sussex County had just 20% of the state’s overall unhoused population, it had more than one-third of Delaware’s unsheltered people experiencing homelessness.
State and local organizations have brought forth a number of initiatives in Sussex County, including a pallet village in Georgetown and a sanctioned encampment near Lewes.
