On this page:

• What is Good Neighborhood?
• Endorse the Good Neighborhood Project!
   (See the current list of Endorsers)
• Fair Share Housing Measurements
• The Policy Implications
• Resources

What is Good Neighborhood?

The Good Neighborhood Project of the Delaware Housing Coalition (DHC) is a long-term campaign to meet the need for affordable, accessible, inclusive communities everywhere in Delaware by creating a more equitable geographic distribution of affordable housing.

The Fair Share Housing Measure describes the additional affordable housing units that a community should make available in order for that community to bear an equitable geographic share of the total need.

Affordable housing:

• has an extremely high positive economic impact

• is of proven social benefit to the communities where it is situated

Affordable housing needs:

• cannot be met solely by focusing on the gap between incomes and housing cost or on the funding required to make housing affordable for poor Delawareans.

• can only be met by addressing social, regulatory, and civic barriers to a more equitable geographic distribution of affordable housing and greater life opportunities.

A Fair Share of affordable housing means:

• a better geographic distribution of affordable housing

• greater choices and opportunities for all households, including homes accessible to people with disabilities

• more inclusive communities

• an overall benefit to the state

Affordable housing can and should be available in:

• mixed-income neighborhoods

• a variety of different housing types

• healthful environments

• proximity to open space, employment opportunities, public transportation, and

• well‐performing public school districts

• communities where unemployment, poverty, and crime are low

• racially and ethnically diverse neighborhoods

• neighborhoods with a diversity of work and professional backgrounds among heads of households.

ENDORSE THE GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD PROJECT!

For all these reasons:

* we endorse the Good Neighborhood Project of the Delaware Housing Coalition,

* we recommend use of its Fair Share Housing Measure in community planning discussions, and

* we ask the question, "Why Not In My Back Yard?”

Go to our online endorsement form.

FAIR SHARE HOUSING MEASUREMENTS

The Fair Share Housing Measure uses the needs of extremely low-income Delaware households with unaffordable housing cost burdens as its basis. It describes the additional affordable housing units that a community should make available in order for that community to bear an equitable geographic share of the total need.

Surplus and Deficit Census Tracts
The best current data on geographic distribution of affordable housing in Delaware is still the 2000 Census, which shows only 13 of 317 census tracts (4%) with clear surpluses. Almost half of all tracts (47%) fell into the borderline category somewhere between a deficit of - 25 and a surplus of +25. 156 tracts (49%) had clear deficits. The tract with the highest surplus (+118) was in Claymont and the one with the highest deficit was in Upper Christiana (- 173). The median for all census tracts was - 25.

Surplus and Deficit Census Tracts

Category

Range

# of Census Tracts

% of Census Tracts

Surplus

+ 26 to + 118

13

4%

Borderline

+25 to - 25

148

47%

Deficit

- 26 to - 50

80

25%

High Deficit

-51 to - 100

62

20%

Very High Deficit

- 101 to - 173

14

4%

Net Need
After counting the extremely low-income housing need, the Fair Share Housing Measure compensated for units affordable and available in each census tract. This still left a need for 9,186 assisted housing opportunities throughout the state.

Counties
By county, the need broke down as shown in the chart below, revealing a disproportionate need for more affordable housing for extremely low-income households in Sussex County.

Areas
When the needs are calculated by area, all census tract groupings have a deficit, with the median being - 289. Kenton has the smallest area deficit at - 71. Brandywine had the highest deficit at - 973.

Fall 2010 Housing Journal with Fair Share Measure and Policy Implications
[full color version]

"Fair Share" Presentation at the MARC-NAHRO Conference, Wilmington, May 3, 2010

Winter 2009 Housing Journal on renter "Fair Share Measure"

Resources for Inclusion

Presbyterian Church USA Statement on Inclusive Communities

Summer 2009 Housing Journal on "What Do We Mean By Fair Share?"

Spring 2009 Housing Journal on "Good Neighborhood"

Spring 2009 Housing Journal on "Fair Share Measures"

www.prrac.org
The Poverty and Race Research Action Council (PRRAC) is a civil rights policy organization convened by major civil rights and anti-poverty groups with the mission of helping to connect social scientists with advocates working on race and poverty issues, and to promote a research-based advocacy strategy on issues of structural racial inequality.

www.inclusivecommunities.net/
The Inclusive Communities Project (ICP) is a not-for-profit organization that works for the creation and maintenance of thriving racially and economically inclusive communities, expansion of fair and affordable housing opportunities for low income families, and redress for policies and practices that perpetuate the harmful effects of discrimination and segregation. ICP envisions an America where equality is created and sustained in community through access to good schools, affordable housing, safe neighborhoods, and economic opportunity.

www.ARicherLife.org
The National Fair Housing Alliance, in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act, has created this website to help us better understand how neighborhood diversity will benefit us and our families.

"Encourage and accept diversity in your neighborhood and community. It will promote a grater sense of engagement, better prepare your children for the global community they will inhabit... give us all a richer life."

www.mobilityagenda.org 
The Mobility Agenda seeks to build public support for strengthening the labor market, benefiting our economy, workers, and communities.

www.inclusionaryhousing.org/
This is an online resource to inclusionary housing in the Sacramento, CA, region, created to assist developers, realtors®, government planners, policy makers, and community members. This website details 12 different inclusionary housing programs throughout the Sacramento region and includes information to help assess the various affordable housing requirements.

www.open.soc
Fund for an OPEN Society (OPEN) works to promote thriving racially and ethnically integrated communities, believing that inclusive communities create equity, breaking down the structures which have created and sustained inequality for people of color as well as providing rich environments for our young people, who will be leaders in a more global economy and society. It envisions a better America, where equality is created and sustained in community through equal access to good schools, housing, and economic opportunity.
 

Surplus and Deficit Census Tracts

Category

Range

# of Census Tracts

% of Census Tracts

Surplus

+ 26 to + 118

13

4%

Borderline

+25 to - 25

148

47%

Deficit

- 26 to - 50

80

25%

High Deficit

-51 to - 100

62

20%

Very High Deficit

- 101 to - 173

14

4%