Wilmington Joins a Growing List of Cities Closing Encampments Without Housing Alternatives

50 Residents Face Eviction from the Only Place They Were Legally Allowed to Sleep

About 50 residents sleeping in city-provided tents in Christina Park awoke one morning to discover police handing out eviction notices.

After June 15, no one will be allowed to camp in the park that had been previously designated as the city’s only sanctioned encampment. Residents who were previously provided with tents for use in this area will be required to remove their belongings and leave the tents behind.

Sleeping outside is already banned in all other areas of the city. So, come June 15, these people will have nowhere to go and no tent to sleep in.

A Brief History of the Sanctioned Site

At last count, more than 600 people were estimated to be living without housing in the city of Wilmington, Delaware. Some of those people have been sleeping in tents in Christina Park.

As part of his campaign promise to address homelessness, Mayor John Carney last fall announced that the site will be sanctioned as an encampment for up to 100 tents, while all other encampment sites across the city will be banned. The site would remain a sanctioned encampment spot until tiny homes were built there sometime in early 2026.

Local advocates have said that although the city says homelessness should not be criminalized, its actions tell a different story. There has been a noticeable police crackdown on homeless people in the months since the announcement, with encampment sweeps, arrests, and fines all being used to enforce the new rules.

A Spring Surprise

This spring, the city and its contracted partner, the nonprofit Friendship House, installed about 20 wooden platforms in Christina Park, each outfitted with a city-provided tent. The deal was that residents in the park had to give up their own tents and move into the city-provided tents if they wanted to stay in the park.

Within hours, the city’s tents were leaking during the first rainstorm, soaking residents and their belongings. Many collapsed or were ripped open in the modest 20-mph winds. The tents, which the city insisted were waterproof and suitable for all weather, are described as merely water-resistant in their product listing and have a 1-star rating.

Despite the tents’ immediate failure, the city refused to allow residents to continue using their own tents or to roll back any of the other restrictive rules it had imposed on them.

The city’s chief of staff, Cerron Cade, pointed to aesthetic concerns from housed residents as a factor, explaining, “The component of the community that’s out here who is asking for it to be more aesthetically acceptable than what was existing prior, they don’t like the random scattering of tents. So, the component of making sure they all look alike plays a role in that.”

At this point in the timeline, the sanctioned encampment for “up to 100 tents” was now limited to fewer than 30 sites with strict size limitations, leaking tents, and draconian rules on what possessions could be visible outside the tents. Everywhere else in the city was off limits and subject to strict police enforcement. And the total homeless population for the area is over 600. The city had promised the encampment would remain until tiny homes were completed in early 2026. That deadline passed without any sign of construction. Instead, the eviction notices came.

The Inevitable End

The leaking tents were eventually replaced after their flaws became abundantly clear during their initial rollout. But then, just weeks after the city spent so much effort to get its aesthetically pleasing grid of tents up and running, residents woke one May day to find eviction notices taped to their tents and police officers knocking on others.

The notices state that after June 15, 2026, camping and overnight stays will be prohibited in all Wilmington city parks. It goes on to say that all personal belongings must be removed from Christina Park by that time, and residents need to leave their city-supplied tents behind unless they obtain permission from the city to keep them.

No information is given on how that theoretical permission can be obtained or proven. No explanation was given as to why the city was shutting down its only sanctioned encampment site.

The closure follows a pattern advocates say has played out in cities across the country. Encampment sweeps, bans on sleeping outside, and enforcement-first approaches have been documented in cities ranging from Los Angeles to Denver to Portland, often without the housing alternatives that officials promised.

Los Angeles’ Inside Safe program, launched as a shelter-focused alternative to sweeps, has faced criticism after reports showed that nearly 40% of participants returned to the streets after being housed through the initiative.

Wilmington has not provided a timeline or plan for what residents of Christina Park should do after June 15. A statement from the mayor’s office had this to say:

“Christina Park is a public, taxpayer-funded space, and as such, will return to public activity during normal operational hours. We have heard from countless Wilmington residents who are eager to see the park return to its intended recreational use for the surrounding community.”