Incumbent Georgetown Mayor Bill West narrowly won reelection to a sixth term on May 12th, eking out a 34-vote victory over former Third Ward councilwoman Angela Townsend.
But the dust has yet to fully settle in Georgetown, where disputes over how to respond to Delaware’s homelessness crisis and housing shortage have thrust tense small-town politics into the spotlight.
Homelessness was front and center in Georgetown’s mayoral debates – a focus that the town’s outreach workers say is to be expected in a county seat with a concentration of essential services.
“Our program grew up around [homelessness] that was already here,” said Shepherd’s Office Director Jim Martin, whose day center and ministry has provided meals and basic supplies for homeless residents of greater Georgetown since 2019.
“These are folks that are trying to get their life back on track. They're here reaching out to things in Georgetown like the Department of Labor, the DMV, and the Social Security office.” Martin himself spent time in Georgetown while experiencing homelessness more than a decade ago, where he received medical assistance through a case management program offered by La Red Health Center.
During debates held in the week before the election, the work of the Shepherd’s Office and other homeless services providers were a point of contention, albeit mostly a rhetorical one.
Townsend maintains that the concentration of service providers in Georgetown attracts people who require significant assistance from state agencies and nonprofit organizations.
“I'm all for helping the needy,” she said. “But by the same token, there's a difference between helping and enabling, giving a hand up or a handout. I wish they would cut back on some of their free stuff.”
Townsend points to the Shepherd’s Office’s distribution of meals and tents as one possible he suggests Georgetown's year-old pallet shelter village, which currently provides transitional housing for nearly 40 people exiting homelessness, as another.
“I was completely against the [pallet shelter village], but when it came to a vote, I voted for it,” she said. “But yes, they are a magnet… Just because I say it's a magnet does not make it a bad thing. It draws people into the community, especially the homeless.”
While she remains critical of Georgetown’s nonprofit service providers, Townsend underscores that she had no intention of forcing them to relocate.
Mayor West, in contrast, played a leading role in the construction of Georgetown’s pallet shelter village and has remained a vocal champion of the project.
Like Martin, West contends that the town’s homelessness crisis is inextricably linked to its role as the seat of Sussex County’s government and a hub for healthcare and state services — a role he says the town cannot shrug off, but one it can adapt to.
“You know some people – ‘not in my backyard, and we don't need this here,’' he said. “But somebody needs to start somewhere with this.”
West says the construction of the pallet shelter village has been a net positive for Georgetown. The community has not seen an overdose in 2024, and 20 residents have found employment since moving into the village.
Though the village has shown early signs of progress, West argues the village hasn’t seen enough surge in demand to be considered a magnet.
“They’re saying it is causing more people and more homelessness to come to Georgetown,” he said. “I don't see that. If that was the case, why aren’t [they] lined up out there trying to get in the palette village? Why isn’t the wait list [to get into] the village 90 people long?”
Despite the rhetorical split between West and Townsend on the subject of homelessness in Georgetown, Springboard Collaborative Executive Director Judson Malone – whose nonprofit operates the pallet shelter village – says the project would survive with or without support from the mayor and council.
“This situation is beyond the financial ability of the town – their tax base is not there. It would be nice if the counties would take a role, but so far they've largely ignored the issue. So [the campaign rhetoric] was mostly just posturing.”Judson Malone, Executive Director of The Springboard Collaborative.
“Other than the initial capital money we got from the town, we haven't received any additional funding and don't plan to ask for any additional funding,” he said. “This situation is beyond the financial ability of the town – their tax base is not there. It would be nice if the counties would take a role, but so far they've largely ignored the issue. So [the campaign rhetoric] was mostly just posturing.”
While turnout in Saturday’s election was relatively low – just 724 voters in a town with ten times as many residents – Malone noted turnout in the pallet shelter village was strong, in part because of ongoing efforts to help residents secure IDs and register to vote.
Pallet shelter village resident Mitchell, who asked to be referred to by his first name, says that while attitudes toward nonprofit service providers for homeless residents contributed to his decision at the polls on Saturday, he was also motivated by his hopes to put down roots in Georgetown where he arrived last year from rural Pennsylvania.
“I’m happier here,” he said. “The people I'm around are very nice and I get treated better.”
Georgetown’s Hispanic community – which, as of the 2020 Census, includes nearly half of the town’s residents – also played a key role in the outcome of Saturday’s election.
West’s Vice Mayor, Christina Diaz-Malone, is the only Hispanic member of the Georgetown town council; she is also married to Judson Malone. In the weeks leading up to the election, Diaz-Malone says she led an effort to reach out to Hispanic voters via churches, soccer clubs, and direct phone calls.
Diaz-Malone is also involved in efforts to build a new bench of Hispanic candidates for local office in Sussex County, including Georgetown.
The policy priorities of Georgetown’s Hispanic community, she says, are consistent with those of their neighbors: public safety, code enforcement, the addition of new park space, and – crucially, for both second and first-generation residents – housing supply.
“When people come here, they stay with relatives, and then they get a job,” she said. “But then there's no place for them to move. Many of the ones that live in apartments and rental housing are being pushed out of town. [Either] they have to buy land and plop down a mobile home or they have to move in with relatives, which then annoys the people in town because they don't want overcrowding in the apartments.”
Both West and Townsend identify the construction of additional housing as priorities for the council, well beyond the new units currently in the pipeline.
“Right now, [in the] two or three developments being built, a single-bedroom unit is $1,400,” West said. “That's a little steep. So we got to come up with a happy medium to try to get something a little cheaper in that.”
In Townsend’s view, that likely means the addition of higher-density housing in Georgetown’s core, not new detached starter homes.
“I would rather see an apartment complex – for the purposes of maintenance – versus tiny little homes,” she said. “What 18-year-old who finds a job and moves out on their own and has a weed whacker to take care of a lawn?”
Saturday’s election certainly did not extinguish tensions in Georgetown. The town’s ambulance service has struggled to keep up with demand from uninsured users, and recent encampment clearance behind the Georgetown Walmart dispersed homeless residents deeper into rural Sussex County.
“There is one actual encampment left in Georgetown,” said Springboard Collaborative project manager Trish Hill. “Others are either couch surfing or [have] spread out to more isolated areas. This makes it very difficult for outreach workers to engage [with] them and offer services that would assist them in getting off the streets.”
But for those caught in the middle of Georgetown’s often-acrimonious politics, the end of this year’s election cycle may offer a chance to breathe.
