Governor Signs 7 Bills Addressing Delaware’s Housing Crisis
Delaware Governor John Carney, visiting the Lewes Public Library last Friday, signed a package of legislation that promises to promote affordable housing and homeownership throughout the state.
The legislative package includes: Senate Substitute 1 for Senate Bill 22, Senate Bill 25, Senate Bill 244, Senate Substitute 1 for Senate Bill 245, Senate Bill 246, Senate Substitute 1 for Senate Bill 247, and Senate Substitute 1 for Senate Bill 293.
The Governor was joined by Attorney General Kathy Jennings, Delaware State Housing Authority Director Cynthia Karnai, State Senator Russ Huxtable, members of the General Assembly, and housing advocates.
“One of the things that has become very apparent to all of us since the pandemic…” Gov. Carney pointed out, “is the challenge that we have with affordable housing, housing for people at just about every level across the state, every community [including] a lot of issues around workforce housing here in Sussex County. As you all know, it’s a very complicated and very expensive public issue. Fortunately, we have people like those who are standing behind me, and in particular, Sen. Russ Huxtable, who knows a lot about this issue.”
Sen. Huxtable said they traveled across the state to hear some of the issues that impact Delaware’s communities and learn what the state legislature can do to assist in the creation of affordable housing units and how they could further assist in this crisis. “We came up with a package of seven bills that modestly attack the affordable housing issue in a number of different ways,” Sen. Huxtable explained.
“Not one bill can solve the affordable housing crisis,” he pointed out. But these bills “all kind of work together to address the issue. There’s one in there to help people to age in place and get home repairs to prevent a housing situation in the first place. There’s one for the mortgage mediation program. There are incentives, there are tax cuts in there. They all kind of work together to address the situation and we hope that will pay dividends for our communities in the future,” he added.
“We’re addressing the hard things. You know, housing, as the governor mentioned, is a really difficult subject to solve, but we need to tackle it, and I think we’ve tackled it in a really good way in this last legislative session with the housing bills that I introduced and the other ones. So we are finally engaging in this conversation, not just locally, but also through the state. Housing is a ‘number one’ issue, and I’m glad I can bring my personal and professional experience to the table to help address it,” Sen. Huxtable said.
His passion for affordable housing comes from his experience in Appalachia where he participated in home repair programs while in college. “I learned what the value of a ‘roof over one’s head’ meant, and that inspired me then to start working for nonprofits… Before I jumped into the state senate, I worked for nonprofits doing affordable housing and community development work, and I would advocate for good affordable housing and community development policies,” he added.
