In December, many tenants in Creekwood received alarming letters, indicating that they would now be paying significantly higher rents. WHA has now offered some clarification of what’s going on — and a bit more information about whether the same changes will happen to other properties.
The new rates for tenants in 138 apartments in Creekwood would no longer be based on income, and would instead charge tenants based on the Area Median Income (AMI), at a rate set around 40% of the AMI. That would be $975 a month for a 2-bedroom — certainly less than the market rate for a 2-bedroom in Wilmington, but unaffordable for traditional WHA tenants, who make less than $26,000 for a family of two.
For a tenant making well below WHA’s cap of 30% of their income for traditional units, it’s an overwhelming and untenable increase — sometimes double or triple what they were paying in 2025.
These increases are set to occur as tenants hit their re-leasing date, so it will be a rolling change throughout the year. And it remains unclear whether these changes will hit any apartments outside of Creekwood.
The changes are related to a tax-credit rehab at Creekwood that took place in 2011 — WHA’s administration at the time failed to change the rent structure in those units to the appropriate, AMI-based scheme. As WHQR previously reported, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) rehabs changed how WHA was supposed to charge rent to tenants, shifting from income-based to AMI-based, but those changes are only hitting now – 15 years after they were supposed to. During that time, WHA has seen several administrations come and go.
In the time since the rehab, the AMI in Wilmington has gone up 80%, largely thanks to newcomers moving to the area making higher wages than the residents who’ve lived here for decades. In 2025, a single-person household at 30% of AMI makes $22,750. Back in 2011, that income limit was $12,600. It means tenants in traditional public housing can make more without hitting the benefits cliff, but a tenant in LIHTC housing will be charged a much higher rent than they would have experienced in 2011 — an 80% increase that beats the 44% inflation the country experienced during the same time frame.
Asked about these impacts in December, a spokesperson for WHA wrote, “Yes, in tax credit (LIHTC) housing, AMI changes can impact very low- or no-income residents because rents are capped based on AMI rather than individual household income. WHA is taking steps to support residents as these corrections are made.”
That support appears to be an offer to move tenants to units that still operate under the traditional public housing model, with income-based rents, as those units become available. In an FAQ provided by WHA in January, the organization promised, “No family will be displaced as part of this effort. Additionally, no household will be required to pay more than 30% of their household income toward rent.”
Asked for further clarification by email, a spokesperson wrote, “If a household does not qualify for a LIHTC unit, WHA will work with them to transition into one of those public housing units at Creekwood if available, or into another public housing unit elsewhere in our portfolio. The goal is to keep residents housed and ensure no one is paying more than they can afford.”
These Creekwood units are just a portion of over 500 units WHA is reviewing in 2026, which are undergoing a separate scenario of possible rent increases.
Asked whether any other WHA properties are going to experience the same shift from tenant-income to an AMI-based rent, a staff person wrote “the review will take place at recertification. I do not have that answer at this time.”
For other tenants: Compliance and Recertification Review
For the rest of the units that aren’t experiencing a shift because of LIHTC, the renting families will go through a typical “compliance and recertification review.”
According to HUD, that’s a “periodic reexamination of income, family composition, and compliance.” A staff person for WHA said the review will impact tenants in Creekwood, New Brooklyn, The Pointe, Robert Taylor Senior, Rankin Terrace, and portions of Jervay Communities. It’s critical to stay in compliance, according to WHA, to maintain federal funding.
Essentially, public housing tenants are meant to pay 30% of their income for rent. If their income goes up, the rent needs to go up — but not likely by the margins some tenants in Creekwood are facing. Each tenant and family will have a very individualized experience of rent changes, entirely based on changes to their income.
Some experts on public housing have told WHQR that this review may also cause families to move so they end up in a more “suitable” unit. That, to WHA, means an appropriate number of bedrooms for the number of people in the household. In a place like Creekwood, it would mean an empty nester going from living in a 3-bedroom apartment to a 1-bedroom apartment, perhaps at a different site.
Below is the FAQ provided by WHA to its tenants.
