The First State’s affordable housing crisis is getting worse.
According to a new report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, nearly a third of workers don't make enough to afford a one-bedroom apartment in the state.
This comes as rents and housing costs across Delaware continue to rise and barriers to homeownership widen.
The executive director of Housing Alliance Delaware, Rachel Stucker, says the affordable housing crisis touches all parts of the state, which is roughly 20,000 housing units short for median and low-income people and is having wide-ranging consequences.
“So we’re seeing people be really, really squeezed,” Stucker said. “[They’re] forced to rent homes that are way above what they can afford, which puts them at risk of eviction and displacement and instability, forced to double, triple up, and, in more cases than we would like, forced into homelessness.”
Stucker adds that the state needs federal aid to address its affordable housing crisis, but if at least 1% of Delaware’s budget isn’t allocated towards housing, the crisis won’t improve.
“If we only rely on the private market without government support to build our way out of this crisis, we’re gonna end up with a lot more higher-end units that are pushing people out,” Stucker said. “And people of lower and more moderate incomes will be forced either out of the community and/or to reside in units that are less safe, less up to standard.”
