Durham Housing Authority officials Thursday presented plans to turn a low-income community into a revitalized neighborhood with residents of mixed incomes.
But some citizens who attended the presentation feared that rising property values might induce an affordable housing shortage that would drive out many of the current residents of North-East Central Durham, some of whom live in public housing.
Officials hope to use $35 million in federal Hope VI funds to rebuild the neighborhood, which is home to the 240-unit public housing complex of Few Gardens. The area currently contains many run-down buildings, and crimes like drug dealing often take place there as well, said Willie Jones of The Community Builders, Inc., a Boston-based consulting firm that is working with the city's housing authority on the redevelopment project.
"What's presented here is not a mealy-mouthed or subtle approach," Jones said. "We wanted to be aggressive in terms of making change.... Our goal is to transform North-East Central Durham into a neighborhood people live in by choice, not necessity."
Under the plan, some existing homes in the neighborhood would be torn down and replaced; a new park would be created in part of the Few Gardens area. That disturbed residents who do not want to move.
Sharon Lyons, a resident of North Goley St., said her house was built recently through Habitat for Humanity and is in good condition. "I have been in my brand new home for only four years, and I do not want to see my house pushed down," she said.
The rebuilt neighborhood would contain between 575 and 650 total housing units, with 350 to 450 designed for rental and 150 to 225 for home ownership, Jones said. The figures are more ambitious than those in the original 425-unit Hope VI proposal the housing authority presented to the federal government in July.
A larger number of properties would also be designed to be sold or leased at market value, Jones said. That could bring some higher-income residents into the area as well. "You want a mixed-income neighborhood, and if you want property values to appreciate, you have to have that," he said.
But some feared that an increase in home values could lead to a situation in which low-income residents cannot afford to live in the area, and current residents, many of whom are black, might be driven out.
"Is my community going to change colors because you're going to come and put in units that some of us can't afford?" North-East Central Durham resident Tony Garrett asked Jones during a question-and-answer period.
And Stephen Matherly, a recent candidate for Durham City Council, asked whether the neighborhood might not take on a more high-income, "gentrified" feel if residents buy homes and later sell them as property values rise, further eliminating the availability of affordable housing. "It may be slow-motion gentrification, but it's gentrification," he said.
Jones said rental properties could be protected from such sales, but added that homeowners should be allowed to sell their houses. "The slow-motion gentrification that you talked about is one of the challenges," he admitted. "But I think the flip side is you want to have a neighborhood that people fight for. And you can't have it both ways."
The neighborhood would also gain a regional rail station along its southern edge, said Juanita Shearer-Swink of the Triangle Transit Authority. The station would run next to an existing railroad line and would not run through any homes, she said.
Jones estimated that construction on the Hope VI redevelopment would take place between 2002 and 2004, while the rail system might arrive between 2007 and 2010.
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