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© 2020 by Action for Delaware's Children

A First Step toward ending homelessness for school age children

PROPOSED NEW STATE RENTAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM PILOT FOR FAMILIES WITH SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN LIVING IN SHELTERS AND MOTELS

 

As currently configured, Delaware’s State Rental Assistance Program provides vouchers for clients of the Department of Health and Social Services and the Department of Services for Children, Youth, and their Families.  These vouchers pay for whatever portion of a voucher recipient’s rent constitutes more than 28% of the recipient’s monthly income.  All applications must be referred to the Delaware State Housing Authority by DHSS or DSCYF.

 

Earlier this year, DSHA also launched a pilot program with the Dual Generation Center at Stubbs Early Education Center that will provide vouchers to up to 20 families that met a set of criteria that include being employed at the same job for six months and participating in intensive case management from the Dual Generation Center for at least 60 days.

 

According to the 2025 Point in Time Count, there were 1,585 people in Delaware living in situations that were either unsheltered or temporary shelters such as emergency housing or transitional shelter for the homeless.  Over 25% of those people were under the age of 18.  By the most objective measure, there are hundreds of Delaware children of school age who are homeless, in addition to children in other unstable housing situations such as those whose families are “doubled up” and not included in these statistics.  

 

Aside from all of the other harms imposed on children by homelessness, researchers have documented clear links between homeless and school absenteeism, and homelessness and academic achievement.  

 

Delaware can and should reduce the number of school aged children who are homeless, while it continues to develop longer term strategies for eliminating all homelessness.  The most direct and efficient method for the state to reduce this number in the short term is to make SRAP vouchers available to families of school age children who are living in motels, shelters, or in other similar circumstances. In order to expedite the movement of families into more stable housing, these vouchers would be means-tested to ensure that they were only going to families with financial need, but would not be linked to referral from a state agency.  Schools and school districts would be able to make direct referrals to the Delaware State Housing Authority.  DSHA would develop an appropriate means test for the vouchers, and develop programmatic and reporting requirements that would be conditions of receiving the vouchers.  One of the requirements would be that the head of the family be either working, actively seeking work, or actively training for work.

 

The Delaware State Housing Authority has shared with us:

  1. That there are rental units that would be available and affordable to families with SRAP vouchers.

  2. That the estimated annual cost of a voucher would be approximately $15,000 per family.

  3. That in addition to the cost of the voucher itself, DSHA would require staff support to administer the program (including means testing) and also handle any inquiries or complaints from landlords accepting the vouchers.

 

Based on these assumptions, we believe that for a cost of $800,000 per year, the state could move 50 families with school age children out of shelters and motels and into rental housing.  The vouchers would be good for a period of one year, and could be renewed by DSHA (contingent on continued state funding) if DSHA determined that the family had made good faith efforts (through compliance with explicit DSHA requirements) to obtain sufficient income to pay for rental housing without a voucher.  DSHA would also be able to issue revised renewal vouchers for families that had found employment but at wages insufficient cover reasonable rent.

 

On May 18th, DEFAC recognized $196 million in new revenues for the upcoming fiscal year –revenue that the state didn’t know until four days ago that it had.  We encourage the Joint Finance Committee to direct $800,000 of the state’s newly-recognized revenue – less than one half of one percent of it -- for the upcoming fiscal year to moving Delaware families with school age children out of motels and shelters and into stable housing that will allow these children to thrive in school.

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