Wilmington City Council fails to override Carney’s housing veto

Why Should Delaware Care?
In his second year in office, Wilmington Mayor John Carney made housing a focus in Delaware’s largest city. But an ongoing debate with the City Council over how to spend housing dollars has exposed a divide over whether Wilmington should prioritize dollars for affordable housing developers or for immediate help to people in need.

The Wilmington City Council failed to override a mayoral veto of a housing ordinance Thursday that would have established a dedicated fund for affordable housing construction, homeless services, and first-time homebuyer assistance.

The vote marked the latest in a months-long battle over the city’s housing strategy between Wilmington Mayor John Carney and several City Council members. While both sides say they support expanding affordable housing, they are divided over whether the city should establish a permanent housing fund or focus on funding housing items directly in the city’s budget.

The vote came two weeks after Mayor John Carney vetoed the ordinance, stating in a letter to City Council that it “lacks a funding mechanism and does not advance Wilmington’s strategy to create more affordable housing in a meaningful way.” 

He also said the proposal would create an advisory committee that duplicates the work of an existing housing committee in the city. 

During Thursday’s meeting, the bill’s sponsor Councilwoman Shané Darby pushed back, arguing her advisory body would serve a different role because it would be a permanent body responsible for overseeing the trust fund, studying housing issues and making recommendations about how the money should be allocated.

Darby also said City Council could identify revenue sources for the trust fund in the future through city appropriations, state funding or developer fees. 

“If the concern is that the fund needs more revenue, then our next policy discussion should be identifying additional revenue sources, not rejecting the framework altogether,” Darby said.

Darby needed nine council members to override the veto of her ordinance. The final vote was 8-5, leaving Carney’s June-18 veto in place.

Prior to the vote Thursday, Councilmembers Michelle Harlee, Maria Cabrera, Nathan Field and Latisha Bracy, said they support the creation of a housing trust fund but echoed Carney’s critique, saying the city should first determine a funding structure and ensure it aligns with the affordable housing initiatives already approved in the budget. 

They also argued that moving forward without the mayor’s support would make the trust difficult to implement.

“We could pass this, we can overturn the veto, but at the same time, that doesn’t mean that the administration would have to implement it. I would like to see something that we can implement,” Cabrera said.

The discussion led to a heated back and forth after Bracey asserted that more collaboration with the administration was necessary to put the measure in place.

“We don’t have an enforcement mechanism to make the mayor and his administration do anything, so it behooves us to actually work across the hall with them and make sure that we have a housing trust,” Bracy said.

Darby pushed back, saying she had worked with the mayor’s office throughout the ordinance’s development and met repeatedly with Carney’s staff. She added that she emailed the administration twice after the veto but never received a response.

“To sit here and act like I wasn’t collaborative, you are a liar,” Darby said to Bracy.

Asked about the comments, Daniel Walker, Carney’s deputy chief of staff, confirmed that Darby contacted the mayor’s office after the veto but only to share why she disagreed with Carney’s veto, to relay questions from other council members, and to ask if Carney had other concerns outside of the initial veto letter. 

“Our letter was clear, and we had nothing new to share. Both of those communications are included here. She never asked for a meeting to specifically consider an alternative proposal,” Walker said to Spotlight Delaware.  

Walker said the mayor’s office is still open to working on legislation that creates “opportunities that complement the existing housing plan.”

Months of past deliberations

Darby first introduced the housing trust fund proposal in February, pitching it as a permanent fund for affordable housing construction, homeless services, and first-time homebuyer assistance.

A month later, Carney unveiled his proposed city budget for 2027, which included a $20 million housing package. Nearly $17 million of that proposal was earmarked for subsidies to developers building affordable housing. 

But the subsidies sparked criticism from City Council members who argued it was too costly and would do little to address residents’ immediate housing needs.

By May, a faction on the council rallied behind a new housing agenda that had Darby’s housing trust measure as a centerpiece. Housing advocates also urged the council to approve the measure, arguing it was needed to address the city’s growing affordability crisis.

Carney later scaled back his housing proposal to an $11.8 million package, which the City Council largely preserved in the final budget. 

And two weeks later, the council approved Darby’s housing trust ordinance, setting the stage for the mayor’s veto and Thursday’s unsuccessful override attempt.

The debate between the council and the Carney Administration over how the city should invest in affordable housing has also unfolded just as the city was facing ongoing criticisms over its response to homelessness, particularly at a city-sanctioned encampment at Christina Park.

Carney issued his veto letter to the council on June 18, which Darby publicly criticized. In a June interview with Spotlight Delaware, Darby said she believed Carney vetoed her housing trust measure because he’s “not a fan of me.” 

More from the council debate

The arguments raised during Thursday’s debate, prompted frustration from some council members who criticized the body for stalling efforts to address affordable housing.

Councilman Coby Owens noted that his colleagues had rejected an alternative proposal during budget negotations that would have set aside funding for the housing trust.

Now, he said, some of those same colleagues were arguing the trust should not be created until a funding source was identified. 

“I’ve heard so much double talk tonight. It’s insane. Can’t we come together as a council and do one thing together?”

Those who voted in favor of overriding Carney’s veto included Darby, Johnson, McCoy, Harlee Owens, Christian Willauer, Alex Hackett, and Council President Trippi Congo. 

Voting against the override were councilmembers Bracy, Field, Cabrera, James Spadola, and Zanthia Oliver.