Huxtable needs to step up to the plate

As reported in the Cape Gazette last week, Delaware State Housing Authority Director Eugene Young told attendees at a local chamber of commerce event that affordable housing was “the biggest issue in the state, hands down.”

 

The issue with Director Young’s comments is that those like him who hold positions of leadership spend plenty of time pontificating about the need for affordable housing, yet shy away from the heavy lifting of leveraging resources to make meaningful improvements. Let’s be honest, how many guests at the chamber of commerce event in Rehoboth where Director Young spoke were worried about where they were going to be sleeping that night? My guess is, probably none. State and local leaders are filling their fall schedules speaking to groups they are aligned and comfortable with, not showing up to convene and listen to those in true need, which brings me to the disappointing efforts of Sen. Russ Huxtable.

 

Huxtable came to office a year ago with no political experience, and it has shown. His inability to lead and convene a conversation in collaboration with Lewes officials on the Donovan-Smith Manufactured Home Park has been a study in aloofness and absence. How can a public official who constantly touts his experience as an affordable housing expert be so disengaged from a housing crisis playing out in the heart of his district?

 

While it is well known that Huxtable’s political and financial donor base comes mostly from older, white, highly educated and wealthy residents, the dismissiveness and lack of engagement toward those outside that base has been demeaning and disgraceful. The very Lewes residents whose pleas for help are being ignored by Huxtable are his constituents, too.

 

Let’s be clear: The issues with Donovan-Smith are challenging, but they are not unsolvable. The work is moving forward, if ever so slowly. Huxtable needs to stop humbly bragging over a hollowed-out bill Pete Schwartzkopf had to carry across the finish line on the last day of the legislative session banning craft beer and cheeseburgers in Cape Henlopen State Park. The district deserves a senator who rolls up his sleeves, shows up and works on their behalf. It’s been well documented in the pages of this paper that Huxtable likes to dress up in an antique baseball costume and hand out tributes. If he keeps going at this anemic rate, he may end up like “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and get kicked out of the game in the November 2024 elections.