I want to thank Sen. Russ Huxtable, D-Lewes, and the Delaware Affordable Housing Production Task Force for all their hard work. When Sen. Huxtable wrote that one of the things the task force made clear was that “(o)utdated local zoning is the single greatest barrier to housing affordability,” he didn’t have to convince the Little Living group (“Plan for development without fear”).
While building Georgetown’s first “official small homes,” Little Living has had to try to overcome local zoning barriers, while being constantly harassed by people from Georgetown because of rumors and outright false information. Only through the eyes of some public officials has the Little Living group been able to build several “affordable houses, cottages and workforce housing.”
All these titles have been used to describe the “little homes,” but, regardless of the “title” being used to describe them, the fact remains the same: These are future “homes.”
You cannot go a day without hearing from someone about the lack of “affordable homes” in Delaware. Some counties have done more than others to try to address this problem. Some counties have done “little to nothing.” Giving “lip” service about “how we have changed this or that” or “we are working on the issue” but then doing everything to stop the development of a whole “village” is only making matters worse.
Little Living knows too well that there are issues, as many of the members of the nonprofit are not only members — giving their time and money to help with the Delaware housing problem — but also volunteer to serve food two times a week. The president of Little Living is 83 years old and gets up “every day” to serve those in need in Delaware, building small homes and serving food.
Sen. Huxtable states, as chair of the Delaware Affordable Housing Production Task Force, that it has pinpointed one of the singular problems in “affordable housing” in Delaware. But people need to remember that local zoning is not the only major barrier to correcting this issue. The other major problem is the people who can make the changes but are doing little to “nothing” to stop it.
Robert Murphy
Milford
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