from the December 2001 Newsletter of the Delaware League

In October I attended a Leadership and Policy Conference on housing in Wilmington. It was sponsored by the Delaware Housing Coalition (DHC) and the State Wide Association of Tenants (SWAT).

For several years our three local Leagues have been helping tenants of low-income housing complexes with their elections. The League of Women Voters is recognized by Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as an unbiased third party. At first, housing authorities would provide us with ballots; we would run the election, count the ballots, and post the results.

For the past three years we have been asked to act as third party at housing complexes where tenants want to organize a resident council. Therefore, League members attend the organizational meetings with DHC and SWAT to make certain residents are not unduly influenced. We observe their nominating process for officers; then thirty days later we carry out the election.

While I am not very familiar with the housing activities of the Greater Dover and Sussex Leagues, I did hear about the time tenants, the League, DHC, and SWAT met outside on the grass to hold their planning meeting because they were not allowed in the community room of the housing complex!

Being more familiar with New Castle County, we helped Greenfield Manor residents organize a year ago, and they have been somewhat successful in not being displaced from their homes. We ran elections at the Park View (the old Electra Arms), and recently we worked for four months, helping organize the Eastlake Relocated Group into a council. Once officers are elected, they receive training and information about their housing rights from DHC and SWAT. It has been extremely rewarding to watch these groups take control and voice concerns about their living conditions.

At the Leadership Conference, Joyce Johnson and I accepted the Kind Policy Award from DHC and plaques of appreciation from SWAT for each of the three Leagues. We know we will be called upon to help at even more locations in the future because HUD requires third party observers. If you would like to join one of our three small helping groups in each county, please let your president know.