Homelessness in Delaware: New Ideas and Directions

The Center for Community Research and Service (CCRS) and the Institute for Public Administration (IPA) in the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Delaware are taking the next step in their already-established partnership to develop the Biden School Housing Initiative. The initiative seeks to provide a hub for activities related to housing and homelessness in Delaware.

The work comes from an assessment of homelessness in Delaware conducted by Stephen Metraux, CCRS director, and Steven Peuquet, associate professor emeritus and Metraux's predecessor. The resulting article, which appeared in the June 2023 issue of the Delaware Journal of Public Health (DJPH), called for a "coordinated, statewide response" as a "critical first step toward addressing what are, based on the data presented here, unprecedented levels of homelessness for Delaware."

A bridging force

CCRS's involvement in addressing homelessness in Delaware dates back to 1988 when Peuquet and then-graduate student Pamela Leland issued the first report to lay out the nature and extent of homelessness in Delaware. CCRS, with Peuquet at its helm, also organized the last prior Delaware homelessness conference, held in 2007. When Metraux, a nationally recognized expert on homelessness, succeeded Peuquet in 2018, he turned to Jerome Lewis, IPA director, for partnership in hosting a series of webinars, research studies, technical assistance and other activities around housing and homelessness in Delaware.

This ongoing effort embodies the University's mission of commitment to innovation and identity as "an institution engaged in addressing the critical needs of the state, nation, and global community."