Durham CAN Victories and Descriptions
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Willard St. Apartments (2019)
- 82 units of affordable housing won after years of organizing
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300 & 500 Blocks of East Main St
- 800+ units of affordable housing won
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Old Police Station
- Won a commitment for 80 units of affordable housing, but developer backed out in the midst of COVID. New developers being vetted. On October 15, 2023, all candidates for Mayor and City Council committed to seeking a developer who would include a grocery store, 25% to 30% of units for residents with 60% or less of area medium income and affordable space for service organizations.
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Fayette Place
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CAN led a major action that aligned the self-interest of Hayti residents and community stake holders, NCCU, DHA, the City, and the support of Self-Help to pressure Campus Apartments, a multi-billion dollar Philadelphia based company to re-sell the 20acre FSP site back to DHA for the original purchas price ($4million). Campus Apartments had defaulted on its commitment to build ~167 apartments for NCCU students on the site, and instead let the site sit UNTOUCHED for a decade. Campus Apartments was waiting out the covenant it made with NCCU to expire, and then they could have extracted the maximum market value out of the land. CAN organized a series of major actions:
- a tour of downtown businesses and hotels that received millions in tax subsidies from the city: https://www.bullcityrising.com/2016/01/durham-cans-public-subsidy-tour-a-beginners-guide-to-tax-incentives-and-affordable-housing-downtown-1.html
- actions at the FSP site: tons of articles on this
- and an action at Monument of Faith that called on Campus Apartments to do the right thing and stop using the land as a blight on the neighborhood to line their pockets.
- All of that public pressure caused Campus Apartments to sell the land back to the DHA, and the City putting up $4million to buy it. Campus Apartments lost millions on the deal – inflation alone between the date of original purchase from DHA to selling back to DHA was significant, not to mention Durham’s downtown land value skyrocketing between ~2007-2017
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CAN led a major action that aligned the self-interest of Hayti residents and community stake holders, NCCU, DHA, the City, and the support of Self-Help to pressure Campus Apartments, a multi-billion dollar Philadelphia based company to re-sell the 20acre FSP site back to DHA for the original purchas price ($4million). Campus Apartments had defaulted on its commitment to build ~167 apartments for NCCU students on the site, and instead let the site sit UNTOUCHED for a decade. Campus Apartments was waiting out the covenant it made with NCCU to expire, and then they could have extracted the maximum market value out of the land. CAN organized a series of major actions:
- Bilingual Counselors
- Universal Free Breakfast for all Durham Public School children.
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Police Accountability
- CAN led research that made national news about DPD’s racial biased in stop and search: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/21/us/activists-wield-search-data-to-challenge-and-change-police-policy.html
- This led to a policy proposal that was accepted but the DPD Police Chief Lopez in a meeting at DPD with ~20 Clergy Leaders. Lopez was then invited to a CAN action at St. Philips Episcopal to ratify DPD’s commitment to the new policy (modeled on Fayetteville PD policy on written consent), when he…well acted ridiculous. He was fired two weeks later, and then CAN Clergy Leader Mark Anthony Middleton was invited to be on the committee that selected Durham’s new police chief.
- Duke Working Wage
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Lead Paint Abatement
- (First action, not sure of the # of homes)
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Durham County and City Living Wage
- (began with contract workers and moved to all employees)
- Leveraged over $400,000 to help working parents keep vouchers for childcare
- Neighborhood improvements to sidewalks, lighting, street signs, etc. through Neighborhood Improvement Services
- Organized to provide specialty care to the uninsured through the development of Project Access