Wilmington Mayor John Carney’s administration responded to pushback after his administration announced the closure of an unhoused community site in a press release Friday.
The community site at Christina Park will close to residents June 15 for a few days of cleaning. Then, the park will reopen under its initial intended use, which does not allow for unhoused people to set up tents or sleep in the area.
As of this week, the park still has 57 residents, according to Carney’s Deputy Chief of Staff Daniel Walker.
Walker said it’s ironic that the same people against closing the park to unhoused people didn’t want to have the park as a community site in the first place.
“So I would ask them to get their priorities clear,” Walker said. “The other part is we released a very public plan around what we intended to do, and if their false information that they're spreading into the community is saying that people cannot be connected, that is an outright lie.”
Advocates involved with the Task Force on Homelessness suggested the site be set up in tandem with more sustainable solutions like opening a pallet village.
Wilmington City Council passed a resolution last week urging the administration to rethink its decision and keep the park open to the unhoused until all residents have secured housing.
Councilmember Shané Darby proposed the resolution.
“We have to hold him accountable for a piss poor response to the issue today,” Darby said.
Walker said all Christina Park residents will have opportunities for housing by the park’s closing date.
Friendship House, the nonprofit that helps the city manage the park, reported last month that the timeline was too short to guarantee housing to all residents.
In an interview with Delaware Public Media last month, Carney’s Director of Communications Carolina Klinger said the city will continue offering resources to residents while the park is still open to residents.
“We can't guarantee that everyone will opt in to the resources that will be offered, but it's our intention to reach as many people as possible,” Klinger said May 11.
Carney’s administration argues the plan for the park was always to be temporary.
Walker said Council worked against the Mayor’s initial budget which included funding for developers to create affordable housing.
“Matter of fact, they cut it down in half,” Walker said. “We have proposed a plan to develop a dining hall and day center. Just last week, City Council voted to approve $600 thousand to go towards that day center… The state has provided a million dollars through [a] bond bill, and we have also put a bond bill [asking] for the other half of it.”
City Councilmembers who spoke against Carney’s housing budget wanted funds to go to emergency housing solutions like rental assistance and eviction prevention rather than funding developers alone.
Walker said city staff are also looking into a pallet village, which will have to be a collaborative effort between Carney’s administration and Councilmembers.
“We asked for the exploration of a tiny village,” Walker explained “We sent the letter that council did not want to be a part of and committed to doing the work to bring it here. Now that ball is in Council's court, so the question isn't about what the mayor is going to do. The question is, what is Council going to do collaboratively with us?”
Walker said Council has been connecting with Springboard Delaware, a nonprofit that opened a pallet village in Georgetown.
