Delaware lawmakers are considering a new program that would move 50 homeless families into rental housing who now live in shelters and motels. In our partnership with Spotlight Delaware Delmarva Public Media's Don Rush talks with reporter Julia Merola about the new proposal. The full interview can be heard on this Friday's Delmarva Today at noon on WSDL and WESM.
RUSH: Homelessness has become a major issue for the state of Delaware with many cities struggling to find solutions to meet their needs. This is Don Rush. So there's an initiative in what could become a pilot program that would provide 50 homeless families with rental housing. In addition, the need for referrals would also be eased. A partnership with Spotlight Delaware, we talk with Julia Merola about the new proposal.
MEROLA: It's more so a line item that would basically allow for 50 Delaware families, specifically families who have children that are experiencing homelessness. It would help them get access to affordable rental housing so that they can move out of shelters or motels where they're currently staying and get into a place that's more stable.
RUSH: So I understand that this really focuses on housing as opposed to necessarily shelters. What's that transition like? What's that transition like and what's the need for referrals, that kind of thing? How does that differ?
MEROLA: There are current resources, and so currently the referral process is that a family has to be referred to the Delaware Rental Assistant Program by a state agency, the Department of Health and Social Services, or the Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth, and their Families. But under this new initiative, families don't need those referrals from state agencies anymore. So instead, if you're a family experiencing homelessness and the school district is aware of that, the school districts or your individual school can make that referral for you. So teachers are the one that see these issues first and they're very close with their students. They have that connection. They talk to their school administration or their district administration. They can make that referral process a little bit more streamlined.
RUSH: So I understand that some of these current services, there's a backup in terms of a backlog. Is there an easy access to this kind of assistance?
MEROLA: For this particular initiative, the money is only going to help 50 families. So it's not like there's going to be a waiting list of 60, 70 families. They're only going to be able to help those 50. But in general, yeah, there is a waiting list. During this press conference, we had heard from people like Carrie Casey, who's the Newcastle County Community Services General Manager, and she also works with the county's voucher program. And she had talked about how their voucher program's waiting list has been closed for years. They have 8,000 people on the waiting list. So in general, yeah, there's definitely a waiting list. For this program specifically? It'll only be helping 50 families.
RUSH: Do they have any optimism that they'll be able to move beyond homelessness? The people that you talk to, do they seem transitory at this point?
MEROLA: Yeah, I mean, I think in general it's hard to say because the people who I've spoken to for day-to-day life, and it doesn't seem like it's necessarily getting better, but I think that at the same time, during this press conference, we heard from a teacher who works at the Maurice Pritchard Academy in Wilmington. She advocates for a lot of families in her school that are experiencing homelessness. And she talked about how this isn't the final proposal that's going to help every single family, but it really is a step [towards] really helping people.
RUSH: Spotlight reporter Julia Merola on the new initiative that would move homeless families out of shelters and motels into rental housing. The full interview can be heard on this Friday's Delmarva Today at noon on WSDL and WESM, this is Don Rush for Delmarva Public Media.
