DELAWARE VETERANS POLICY PLATFORM


Serving Those Who Served - With Honor, Accountability, and Action


Delaware's veterans answered the call to serve our country. When they return home, our state has a responsibility to make sure they are not left fighting bureaucracy, unaffordable housing, job barriers, mental health challenges, gaps in care, or long travel burdens alone.

Supporting veterans should not be a partisan issue. It should be a Delaware issue. The men and women who served this country deserve more than speeches, ceremonies, and symbolic recognition. They deserve a state government that is organized, responsive, transparent, and committed to helping veterans and their families live with dignity, stability, and opportunity.

The Independent Party of Delaware believes Delaware should become a national model for how a small state can serve veterans well: personally, efficiently, and without political games.

Core commitment: Delaware should serve veterans with the same seriousness, loyalty, and sense of duty that veterans showed when they served America.

1. Create a Stronger, More Accountable State Veterans System

Delaware should strengthen and modernize its veterans services so that every veteran knows where to go, who to call, and how to get help. Veterans should not have to navigate a maze of offices, websites, phone numbers, and disconnected programs. Delaware should create a clear no-wrong-door system where veterans and their families can quickly be connected to the right support.

Policy priorities:

  • Establish strong cabinet-level accountability for veterans services.
  • Create a single, easy-to-use veterans resource portal for Delaware.
  • Improve coordination between state agencies, county services, nonprofits, employers, and federal VA resources.
  • Publish clear annual reports showing how many veterans are being served, where gaps remain, and how taxpayer dollars are being used.
2. Expand Veteran Healthcare Access in Sussex County

Delaware veterans should not have to drive hours to Wilmington to receive the care they earned through service to our country. For many veterans in Sussex County and southern Delaware, distance is a real barrier to care. Long drives, transportation challenges, age, disability, work schedules, and family responsibilities can make it difficult for veterans to access timely appointments, specialty care, mental health treatment, and follow-up services. Delaware should strongly support the development and timely completion of a major veterans medical facility in Sussex County so downstate veterans can receive high-quality care closer to home.

Policy priorities:

  • Support the construction and timely completion of a major veterans medical facility in Sussex County.
  • Expand specialty care access for Sussex County and southern Delaware veterans.
  • Reduce the need for long-distance travel to the Wilmington VA Medical Center.
  • Improve transportation options for veterans who still need care outside their county.
  • Ensure the facility includes strong mental health, addiction recovery, physical therapy, women veterans' health, and aging veteran services.
  • Coordinate with state, county, federal, and nonprofit partners to make the facility accessible and fully integrated into Delaware's veterans support system.
3. End Veteran Homelessness in Delaware

No veteran who served this country should be sleeping on the street, living in a car, or struggling without stable housing. Delaware should pursue a targeted strategy to prevent and end veteran homelessness by improving early intervention, rapid rehousing, rental assistance coordination, and wraparound support services. The goal should be simple: when a veteran is at risk of homelessness, Delaware acts before the crisis becomes worse.

Policy priorities:

  • Create a statewide veteran homelessness prevention initiative.
  • Improve coordination between shelters, housing nonprofits, the VA, landlords, and county agencies.
  • Prioritize rapid rehousing and permanent supportive housing for veterans with complex needs.
  • Support transitional housing programs that include job training, counseling, addiction recovery support, and case management.
  • Track veteran homelessness data publicly and measure progress every year.
4. Improve Mental Health, Suicide Prevention, and Addiction Support

Many veterans carry wounds that are not visible. Delaware must take veteran mental health, PTSD, suicide prevention, traumatic brain injury, and substance abuse seriously. Mental health care should be accessible, timely, and connected to the realities of military service. Delaware should expand partnerships with veteran-focused providers, peer support networks, crisis services, and community organizations that understand the unique challenges veterans face.

Policy priorities:

  • Expand veteran-specific mental health and peer support programs.
  • Improve suicide prevention outreach, especially for isolated veterans and older veterans.
  • Support addiction treatment programs that understand military trauma and service-related stress.
  • Increase awareness of crisis resources and make them easier to access.
  • Help family members recognize warning signs and connect loved ones to care.
5. Help Veterans Transition Into Good Jobs and Careers

Veterans leave military service with discipline, leadership, technical skills, crisis management experience, and a commitment to mission. Delaware should do a better job helping veterans translate those skills into civilian careers. A veteran who operated complex equipment, managed teams, handled logistics, worked in cybersecurity, served as a medic, or maintained aircraft should not have to start over from scratch because civilian systems fail to recognize military experience.

Policy priorities:

  • Expand veteran hiring partnerships with Delaware employers.
  • Improve credit for military training in occupational licensing and certification.
  • Support apprenticeships and trade pathways for veterans.
  • Help veterans start and grow small businesses.
  • Create veteran hiring incentives that reward long-term employment, not political favoritism.
6. Support Veteran-Owned Small Businesses

Veteran entrepreneurs strengthen Delaware's economy. They create jobs, serve communities, and bring leadership experience into the private sector. Delaware should make it easier for veteran-owned small businesses to compete fairly for state contracts, access capital, receive technical assistance, and navigate permitting and licensing requirements. Support should be practical, transparent, and focused on helping businesses succeed without creating wasteful bureaucracy.

Policy priorities:

  • Improve access to state contracting opportunities for veteran-owned businesses.
  • Offer clear guidance for veteran entrepreneurs starting businesses in Delaware.
  • Partner with chambers of commerce, banks, and nonprofits to expand mentorship and access to capital.
  • Reduce unnecessary regulatory barriers that make it harder for small businesses to launch and grow.
7. Strengthen Support for Military Families and Caregivers

Veterans do not serve alone. Their spouses, children, parents, and caregivers often carry the burden of service, transition, injury, disability, and long-term care. Delaware should recognize the role of military and veteran families by improving access to caregiver support, family counseling, education resources, and employment flexibility for military spouses.

Policy priorities:

  • Expand caregiver support and respite resources.
  • Improve school and community support for children of military and veteran families.
  • Help military spouses transfer licenses and find employment.
  • Ensure families know what benefits and services they may be eligible for.
  • Support widows, widowers, and Gold Star families with dignity and responsiveness.
8. Improve Long-Term Care for Aging Veterans

Many Delaware veterans are aging and need help with long-term care, home-based services, transportation, and benefits navigation. Delaware should make sure older veterans can age with dignity, whether they live independently, with family, in assisted living, or in a veterans home.

Policy priorities:

  • Strengthen oversight and staffing of veteran long-term care services.
  • Expand support for veterans who want to remain safely in their homes.
  • Improve transportation access for medical appointments and benefits services.
  • Help older veterans and surviving spouses access benefits they have earned.
  • Ensure veteran care facilities are safe, well-staffed, and accountable.
9. Make Benefits Easier to Access

Too many veterans miss out on benefits because the process is confusing, slow, or difficult to navigate. Delaware should make benefits assistance proactive. Veterans should not have to know the right form, office, phone number, or program name to get help.

Policy priorities:

  • Expand accredited veterans service officer capacity.
  • Provide benefits outreach in all three counties.
  • Hold regular veterans resource events in libraries, senior centers, colleges, and community hubs.
  • Use plain-language guides so veterans and families understand available benefits.
  • Improve follow-up so veterans are not lost after the first point of contact.
10. Protect Veterans From Scams and Exploitation

Veterans are often targeted by scams, predatory financial products, questionable benefits consultants, and dishonest actors who exploit disability claims, pensions, housing insecurity, or medical needs. Delaware should take a stronger role in protecting veterans from fraud and abuse.

Policy priorities:

  • Increase public education about veteran-targeted scams.
  • Strengthen enforcement against predatory actors exploiting veterans.
  • Provide trusted referrals for benefits assistance, financial counseling, and legal support.
  • Partner with banks, legal aid organizations, and senior advocates to identify fraud early.
11. Honor Veterans Through Action, Not Politics

Veterans deserve respect every day, not just on holidays. Delaware should honor service with practical results: housing stability, healthcare access, mental health care, career opportunity, accessible benefits, strong family support, and accountable government. Veterans policy should be guided by service, not partisanship; accountability, not bureaucracy; and results, not political talking points.

Policy priorities:

  • Put practical veteran support above partisan talking points.
  • Measure success by outcomes, not press releases.
  • Keep Delaware focused on dignity, stability, opportunity, and access for every veteran.

PLATFORM SUMMARY

Delaware should:

  • Strengthen state-level veterans leadership and accountability.
  • Expand veteran healthcare access in Sussex County and reduce long-distance travel burdens.
  • End veteran homelessness.
  • Expand mental health, suicide prevention, and addiction support.
  • Help veterans transition into good jobs and careers.
  • Support veteran-owned small businesses.
  • Strengthen services for military families and caregivers.
  • Improve long-term care for aging veterans.
  • Make benefits easier to access.
  • Protect veterans from scams and exploitation.
  • Honor veterans through real action, not political symbolism.

Delaware's veterans kept their promise to serve. Now Delaware must keep its promise to them.

A veteran's access to care, opportunity, housing, and dignity should not depend on ZIP code, party politics, or bureaucratic confusion.