Housing

This Act requires a lease to set forth clear procedures for the surrender of rental unit keys at the end of the rental term in residential leases, and provides default procedures for key return when there is no lease provision or other agreement.

This Act creates a uniform framework under which a county or municipality may enact an ordinance that exempts Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) properties from property taxes and instead, require that a LIHTC property make an annual payment in lieu of taxes equal to 5% of the LIHTC’s annual net income as reported to the Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA). Under this Act, a LIHTC property that is exempt from property taxes is also exempt from taxation by school districts. Allowing LIHTC properties to make a payment in lieu of taxes, acknowledges the public benefit of the affordable housing provided by LIHTC properties. The Internal Revenue Service LIHTC was created in 1986 by the federal government to encourage a private/public investment to preserve and construct new affordable rental housing. Alone and in combination with tax exempt private activity bonds, the LIHTC has been the most productive source of affordable housing financing in the nation’s history. DSHA receives an annual tax credit amount and awards credits annually through a competitive process. The awards are based on criteria outlined in DSHA’s Qualified Allocation Plan. The equity raised through the tax credit investment makes it possible for developers to attract the financing needed to create or restore low-income rental housing. A LIHTC project must comply with a number of requirements including the timeframe from the award to when the building is placed in service, tenant income restrictions, maximum rent levels, and percentage of low-income occupancy. All buildings financed with the LIHTC are subject to a land use covenant to enforce program compliance for the entirety of the affordability period.

Because Delaware lacks an adequate amount of emergency shelter beds, housing support services, and affordable housing units, only 952 out of 7,131 households that contacted the Housing Alliance Delaware’s homelessness hotline in 2024 were referred to housing assistance. Without adequate shelter available, thousands of individuals experiencing homelessness are forced to seek shelter on the streets, parks, parking lots, and sidewalks, which puts them in constant conflict with local residents, businesses, and the police. Instead of providing adequate housing, local governments are using emergency services, hospital services, and the criminal justice system to remove unhoused individuals from public spaces, exacerbating the barriers unhoused individuals face to achieve stable housing and wasting taxpayer money. This Act seeks to incentivize localities to coordinate or create adequate emergency housing, permanent housing, and wrap-around services for individuals experiencing homelessness, which will ease the financial burden placed on emergency services, hospitals, and the criminal justice system, while providing unhoused individuals stability and dignity. To that end, this Act does the following: 1. Permits an individual experiencing homelessness to conduct life sustaining activities in public, so long as such activities do not obstruct the normal movement of pedestrian or vehicular traffic in such a manner that creates a hazard to others, unless adequate alternative indoor space is available to the individual in a given jurisdiction and has been offered to the individual, including transportation for the individual and their belongings. 2. Mandates that an individual experiencing homelessness receive the same degree of protection for personal property stored in public places as personal property stored in a private dwelling, which includes protections against unreasonable search and seizure. 3. Prohibits the State or local jurisdiction from requiring an individual experiencing homelessness to move a motor vehicle or a recreational vehicle provided that the vehicle is parked on public property and the vehicle is not parked in a position to obstruct the normal movement of traffic or create a hazard to other traffic upon the highway. 4. Provides that, if a motor vehicle or recreational vehicle must be moved because the vehicle is obstructing normal movement of traffic or creates a hazard to other traffic on the roadway, the individual experiencing homelessness must be permitted to relocate the vehicle before a parking ticket is issued or the vehicle is towed. This Act does not prohibit State and local governments from making and enforcing reasonable time restrictions on public spaces (including public parks and parking lots) so long as those time restrictions apply to everyone and are not disproportionately enforced against individuals experiencing homelessness. This Act further permits an individual experiencing homelessness to raise a violation of this Act as an affirmative defense to any charge of violating a statute or ordinance that prohibits life-sustaining activities protected under this Act. The attorney general may commence a civil action against any State or local government, government agency, or government official that violates this Act and this Act also contains a private right of action. This Act specifically waives sovereign immunity. This Act is named in honor of Dr. DeBorah Gilbert White.

This Resolution requests that each of the counties in this State study, respectively, the viability of implementing a property tax freeze for Delaware residents who are seniors and meet household income thresholds that each county establishes. This Resolution includes a model for the counties to consider in creating property tax freezes.

This Joint Resolution directs the Delaware State Housing Authority to create a pilot program for the purpose of providing technical assistance related to zoning ordinance reform to local governments in Delaware. The goal of this pilot program is to help participating local governments identify and implement zoning practices that increase the supply of affordable housing and support goals such as equitable development and economic growth throughout this State. By giving local governments the technical assistance needed to modernize zoning ordinances, this pilot program will help Delaware close its affordable housing gap while allowing local governments the flexibility to adapt best practices to meet their jurisdictional needs. If successful, this pilot program will establish model policies for local government zoning ordinance reforms that can be expanded across this State.

This Act creates the Affordable Rental Housing Program (ARHP) within the Housing Development Fund. The ARHP is modeled on the federal Section 515 program and provides loans to increase the supply of affordable housing for families with very low-, low-, and moderate-incomes, individuals who are elderly, and individuals with disabilities.