Dr. Joseph Zingaro is a psychologist, a congregant at People’s Church of Dover and a board member of the People’s Community Center.
In the movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” the hero, Indiana Jones, played by Harrison Ford, is watching his adversaries dig for treasure, only to be relieved when he recognizes that his opponents are “digging in the wrong place.” In essence, Indiana Jones’ opponents could dig forever, and they would never find what they were looking for.
The city of Dover, like many municipalities, is facing several significant societal problems. Riding around Dover will expose you to most of them: homelessness, drug addiction, prostitution and drug dealing, among other things. When I moved to Dover in 1984, I worked out of a mental health clinic on South Governors Avenue. I could see the problems on New and Queen streets from my office. It seems like those issues have migrated to parts of South Governors Avenue and Bradford Street, as well as to downtown Dover. What’s different about New and Queen streets now than before? Groups like Habitat for Humanity, NeighborGood Partners and the People’s Community Center. Habitat and NeighborGood focus on goals related to affordable housing, a significant need that, if left unaddressed, creates space for homelessness. Affordable housing, when available, is a proven component of an effective solution to homelessness.
Among other things, the People’s Community Center develops job training, coordinating with the Delaware Department of Labor and assisting individuals wanting to enter the workforce with programs that offer General Educational Development tests, financial literacy training and help with securing certain documents for employment, like identification cards, birth certificates, Social Security numbers, etc.
When a solution is efficacy-based, that means it is able to be proven (not just hoped) to be effective. I am a psychologist, and I can tell you that efficacy-based treatments are better than guesswork or something that “sounds” like it will be effective. As an example, putting all homeless people in a different part of the state may sound good — this way, the homeless won’t be in your neighborhood — but that solution will not reduce the number of those individuals. The problem has merely been relocated (out of sight, out of mind) and not solved.
The word “homeless” does not describe a single homogeneous population. Some individuals are homeless because they have mental illnesses that make it hard to get or keep jobs or relationships. Some are homeless because they have substance abuse problems that compromise their ability to find employment or to get out of the very unstable cycle of addiction. Some are homeless because they are escaping domestic violence and no longer have safe places to live. Individuals struggling to reenter society — like those who are leaving the foster care system, prison or the military — are also at a higher risk of homelessness.
There are two efficacy-based solutions. One is called the Housing First approach, and the other is the permanent supportive housing approach. The former, like its name suggests, offers people housing without preconditions, followed by support services like mental health care, substance use treatment and life skills. The second initiative combines housing with more intensive services (for those with disabilities or chronic conditions). This program in particular has been shown to be cost-effective because it reduces reincarceration and the use of emergency services.
Zillow reported that the average rent in Dover for the week of Aug. 25 was $1,900, Apartments.com reported an average of $1,436 for the year, and ipropertymanagement.com reported that the average was $1,448 for the year, a 7.95% increase from 2022. Dover’s average per-capita income is $41,120. Household income levels show a median of $58,336. The poverty rate stands at 17.51% (worldpopulationreview.com). The cost of living is in addition to the rent costs: car payments, health insurance, food, clothing, etc. For many families, there is too much month at the end of the money.
People’s Church of Dover is at 46 S. Bradford St., across from the fire department, which faces Governors Avenue. The church shares space with a not-for-profit, the People’s Community Center. It is possible that many people are unaware of the PCC and so assume that any activity that occurs in the church is a responsibility of the church. The center does use the church facilities to feed the homeless population and food-insecure individuals seven days a week. Some of the beneficiaries of this food are the neighbors of the building. The PCC also has a “free” clothing service for children and adults. About 100 people use the resources the facility offers every day. It also provides shelter for homeless individuals during the winter. Those who are on drugs or who are unruly are not permitted to enter the shelter. Men and women who say they want help with their addictions are offered rides to treatment centers. This year, one of the center’s programs, the Center for Neighbors in Need, sent almost 70 individuals to detox/rehabilitation services. The PCC also provides supportive after-school care to children in the neighborhood. One of these children said they wanted to come to our gym to avoid being bullied and to avoid people asking them to carry drugs.
The site does not provide drug treatment. There are two drug treatment facilities nearby: SaVida Health Dover (938 S. Bradford St.) and the American Treatment Network (1206 Forrest Ave.).
There is an active criminal element in central Dover, which includes the downtown area, as well as the South Bradford Street neighborhood, where People’s Church is. The neighbors and members of the church are justifiably upset about the drug users, dealers and prostitutes that are regularly seen there. Data from the National Human Trafficking Hotline reported in 2021 that Delaware had the 10th-highest number of human-trafficking cases per capita among U.S. states (3.09 cases per 100,000 people). In a study from the Delaware Criminal Justice Council, which reviewed online sex advertisements from 2017-25, Dover accounted for 145,772 ads (41,574 individual profiles). About 8,400 ads were suspected to involve juveniles. The Dover Police Department reported arresting four men for patronizing prostitutes downtown and within 1,000 feet of a church in 2024. In 2025, officers arrested six men during a prostitution operation.
When I first moved to Dover, I believe the State News was sharing photos of men arrested for soliciting prostitutes. I thought that worked. Maybe it is time to revisit that effort, making it harder for such criminals to be anonymous and to avoid notoriety and the shame it could bring. Only 10 men in two years arrested during prostitution operations? Maybe the attorney general’s office can have the police arrest the dealers and prostitutes, then put them to work to decrease their fines/jail time. There are plenty of jobs that can be done to beautify the city, none of which are dangerous or require any special skills.
I am a board member of the People’s Community Center and a congregant at the church. We are not feeding the prostitutes and drug dealers. A focus on the activities of the church or those of the PCC is “digging in the wrong place.” We are neither blind nor oblivious to the drug dealers and prostitutes in our alleyways. We can see them from our windows and often administer naloxone to keep them alive. I can assure you that they are not coming to our church services. If the center stops feeding the neighborhood and stops letting some of the homeless sleep in the church basement during the winter, more people — children and adults — will go hungry, and homeless individuals will sleep where they used to, like in nooks and crannies of buildings downtown or maybe in your unleased rental property.
So, where are some right places to dig? Housing needs to be made more affordable. The use of vouchers can help, but we can’t provide vouchers for rentals that are so deplorable that no one would really want to live in them. If an owner of a property does not want to make appropriate repairs, condemn the rental, so no one can use it (and the owner can’t profit) until the house is worth the cost of the voucher.
There is no need to incarcerate all prostitutes nor their handlers. Separate prostitutes who are willing to enter drug treatment because they were victims of trafficking. If they don’t want to accept treatment, then incarceration may be a better option, so they can get treatment in a closed facility. The individuals who manage the prostitutes or sell drugs are often psychopaths or sociopaths but definitely criminals. Such people are often very difficult to rehabilitate. There are several reentry programs that work with incarcerated men and use interventions to develop empathy, social awareness and an appreciation for the value of honest work. Incarcerating without an adequate reentry program is inviting the recycling of criminals but not recidivism. You are digging in the wrong place if you think you can just release someone from prison and that their time incarcerated somehow taught them a lesson in noncriminal behavior.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
