Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton

This Act repeals the DELJIS Fund fee imposed on criminal defendants. The elimination of this fee was recommended by the Criminal Legal System Imposed Debt Study Group created by House Bill 244, as amended by House Amendment No 2, of the 151st General Assembly, in its December 7, 2023 report. Any outstanding balances owed for this fee shall be discharged upon the Act’s effective date. Per the Study Group’s recommendation, the Act will become effective upon the specific appropriation of General Fund monies to replace DELJIS’s full spending authority of the repealed fee.

This Act discharges balances owed by individuals ordered to pay a probation supervision fee under § 6504(14) of Title 11 of the Delaware Code or a Public Defender fee under § 4607 of Title 29 of the Delaware Code. The probation supervision fee and Public Defender fee were repealed by Chapter 441 of Volume 83 of the Laws of Delaware, House Bill No. 244, as amended by House Amendment No. 2 (151st General Assembly).

This Act repeals the Senior Trust Fund Fee, the Interstate Compact Fee, and the Substance Abuse, Rehabilitation, Treatment, Education and Prevention Fund Fee imposed on criminal defendants. The elimination of these fees was recommended by the Criminal Legal System Imposed Debt Study Group created by House Bill 244, as amended by House Amendment No 2, of the 151st General Assembly, in its December 7, 2023 report. The Criminal Legal System Imposed Debt Study Group also recommended replacement of lost revenue for affected agencies as needed with General Funds. In repealing these fees, the General Assembly also intends to eliminate any outstanding balances owed on these fees.

This Act creates a clearer and workable system for ensuring that manufactured home communities with health and safety violations and conditions that threaten the health and safety of people in the community cannot continue to raise rents on residents without fixing the conditions and providing a safe community for its residents. This substitute differs from the original bill in that it does the following: (1) Adds definitions to § 7003 for the whole chapter. (2) Creates a section that provides requirements for what a community owner must do when it receives a citation or experiences a failure of services related to water, sewer, or utilities distributed by the community owner, including having to fix the problem within 10 days or give detailed reasons why it cannot be completed in that timeframe as well as provide a surety bond for 150% of the estimated cost if it cannot be done in that timeframe. (3) Specifies that a community owner cannot impose a rent increase if it does not comply with the requirements of new section governing such repairs. (4) Changes the court in which community owners may dispute a citation for purposes of receiving a rent increase from Superior Court to the Justice of the Peace Court. This Substitute also makes the new version of § 7051A sunset on July 1, 2026. It reinserts the current version of § 7051A into the code on July 1, 2026, when the new version sunsets.

This Act establishes the “Delaware Workforce Housing Program" (DWHP). Modeled after the Downtown Development District Program, the DWHP allows a qualified workforce housing investor to be reimbursed through a grant up to 20 percent of the capital costs associated with workforce housing units they create. To be eligible for a grant, the project must be located in Investment Levels 1 and 2 as established by the Delaware Strategies for State Policies and Spending. A grant may not be awarded for a housing unit that also uses a federal low-income or state low-income housing tax credit. This program will be administered by the Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA) and requires the DSHA to provide an annual report on the effectiveness of the program. The Act provides the DSHA with the power to adopt regulations for the DWHP. The substitute bill differs from Senate Bill No. 22 by changing most references to the word “affordable” and replacing it with the word “workforce.” Accordingly, the substitute bill modifies “affordable housing unit” to “workforce housing unit” and modifies “qualified affordable housing investment” to “qualified workforce housing investment.” The change in terminology is to avoid confusion within the housing industry, where the word “affordable” is generally accepted to mean housing for a median income level of 80% and below. To be clear, this Act provides workforce housing for median income levels of 100% and below. References to “affordable” have been changed to “workforce” to reflect this distinction throughout the Act. The substitute further clarifies that, although DSHA may not award a DWH Grant for a housing unit that would also use a federal low-income or state low-income housing tax credit, DSHA may approve DWH Grants for workforce housing units in a multiple unit housing project so long as the DWH Grants are awarded to those specific units that do not use federal low-income or state low-income housing tax credits. The substitute allows for DSHA to use part of the allocations for the administrative costs of the DWHP.

The Delaware Fair Housing Act, Chapter 46 of Title 6, and Residential Landlord-Tenant Code, Chapter 51 of Title 25, both prohibit discrimination based on source of income, which is defined as including rental payments from any government program. However, both laws also provide that a landlord's nonparticipation in a government-sponsored rental assistance, voucher, or certificate system cannot be the basis for an administrative or judicial proceeding. Like Senate Bill No. 293, Senate Substitute No. 1 for Senate Bill No. 293 revises both the Delaware Fair Housing Act and Residential Landlord-Tenant Code to repeal the exemption to discrimination based on source of income that allows a landlord to discriminate against tenants who participate in government-sponsored rental assistance programs because this exemption contributes to a lack of affordable housing in this State. There is currently a severe shortage of affordable housing for extremely low-income households in Delaware, with only 38 affordable rental units available for every 100 extremely low-income households. In addition, studies have shown that people who use government subsidies to move from high-poverty neighborhoods to communities with more opportunity have measurable health improvements and the children in these families earn more in adulthood than children who remain in high-poverty neighborhoods. Also like SB 293, SS 1 for SB 293 delays the effective date of this Act to allow the opportunity for Delaware's 5 public housing authorities (PHAs) to do all of the following: 1. Streamline their procedures associated with housing vouchers. 2. Conduct outreach and education to landlords about how this Act changes the law. This outreach will include information explaining that while the law prohibits a landlord from having a blanket policy of not accepting government assistance to pay rent, it does not require a landlord to accept all applicants who receive rental assistance, such as applicants who have a history of evictions or not paying utility bills. SS 1 for SB 293 differs from SB 93 by as follows: • Adds whereas clauses that provide an expanded explanation of current law. • Adds whereas clauses that explain the process Delaware’s 5 PHAs are undertaking to streamline the procedures required when landlords accept housing vouchers. • Requires that the Delaware State Housing Authority provide a report by March 1, 2028, that contains the status of each streamlining recommendation and data comparing the utilization of vouchers before and after the effective date of this Act. • Provides a specific effective date of January 1, 2026. • Provides a sunset date, December 31, 2028, unless repealed or extended by a subsequent act of the General Assembly.

This Act prohibits local education agencies and charter schools from prohibiting a student from participating in a school sponsored extracurricular activity on the basis the student has an outstanding debt for unpaid school meals.

This Act ensures that all female inmates in DDOC custody, at level IV or V, receive annual or biennial screening mammograms as recommended by the United States Preventive Services Task Force.

This Act requires that individual, blanket, and group health insurance carriers cover drug treatment for the associated conditions of metastatic cancer in the same way treatment for metastatic cancer is covered. Specifically, it requires insurance companies to cover any FDA approved drug prescribed to treat the side effects of metastatic cancer treatment and prohibits insurance companies from mandating that patients first fail to respond to a different drug or prove a history of failure of such drug. Technical changes are also made to comply with the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act provides each county with the ability to impose, by duly enacted ordinance, a fire protection fee (fee). A county that enacts this fee must do all of the following: 1. Deposit all money collected from this fee in an account that is segregated from the county's general funds. 2. Establish criteria under which this money is distributed to fire companies providing fire protection in the county. 3. After using no more than 5% of the money annually deposited from this fee for administration of this fee, distribute all of the money collected, including accrued interest, within 18 months of receipt. In addition, under this Act: 1. A fire protection fee may be collected from property that is otherwise exempt from taxation unless an exemption from this fee is provided by the county. 2. A county may, by ordinance, establish penalties for the failure to pay a fire protection fee and establish procedures to abate the penalty. 3. The unpaid balance and any penalties become a lien on the property upon which the fire protection fee was incurred and the county may institute a proceeding to enforce this lien. 4. A fire company must include the money received from a fire protection fee in the annual audit required under § 6608 of Title 16. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.