Dover Homelessness Dilemma : Tiny Houses

By Evan Anderson

Shorty and his friend have no place to go, not even a homeless shelter.

Unpaid fines are stopping some of the homeless from living in shelters.

The homeless in Dover have struggled to find shelters or decent housing for themselves. They not only sometimes lack funds but have mental health issues as well. Every day they deal with something whether with housing, the cops, or even just hanging out at a public park.

“Where we goin’?”, said Shorty. “Yes I’m homeless right now, but it ain’t nothing to support me.”

“If we sit at the park, the first thing they think is we smoking drugs or drinking,” he said.”I bet they will come (screw) with us for being at the library.”

They were sitting outside the library waiting for it to open up at 1 P.M. on Sunday. The Dover Police were parked out front of the library.

Because homeless people have fines that aren’t paid off and also have missing requirements, they find anywhere to sleep on the streets. At night, you can find them sleeping in Dover around different parts of the area.

“A guy stays by the bank,” said Cathi Kopera, co-founder of Port Hope Delaware. “He sleeps between the wall and the speaker.”

Cathi Kopera goes out almost every night to deliver blankets to the homeless sleeping in the cold. She knows the areas around Dover and takes a drive by every spot to check if people are there.

“I go out almost all the time,” Kopera said. “You can find some of these guys anywhere, but I know some spots. I know someone that has slept here on these basement doors,” she said, referring to the abandoned house by the bank. “He died actually because he was out here for so long and it was so cold. It was such a shame when I heard about it.”

Khalil Abdar- Rashid, a Smyrna resident, agrees that Kopera is doing the right thing and that citizens lack help for homeless people because of their appearance.

“There’s not enough resources out there that’s doing what Cathi’s doing,” he said. “The public at large will see these people and avoid them because maybe they are unkempt or dirty or smell funny.”

Sue Harris, also a co-founder of Port Hope Delaware, a service group to provide housing and promote independence, will be looking into her movement of the Tinyhouses so that more people without houses can live in a temporary or permanent living space.

Tinyhouses is an upping organization that’s part of a movement to help the homeless with affordable housing and prevent them from sleeping on the streets. They are still in the process of finding the land that can help provide enough housing for groups of people that are homeless.

Port Hope Delaware and Victory Church are supporters of the Tinyhouse movement, along with other churches including the People’s Church.

In an interview with Sue Harris, we learn the latest on the Tinyhouse movement. They are looking to earn more funds and promote this movement throughout Dover to change the lives of the homeless.