Durham CAN held its first Metro Council Meeting of 2021 via Zooom on Thursday, January 21.  We kicked off the meeting by welcoming our new Strategy Team co-chairs Mr. Kevin McNamee, Mr. Cullen McKenney, and Ms. Ketty Thelemaque. Long-time co-chairs Rev. Dr. Herbert Davis and Rev. Dr. Timothy Conder will serve their final year on the strategy team in 2021, and we cannot thank them enough for their years of hard work and dedication to our work.

We also met this semester's interns: Rachel Hefner, a senior at Meredith College pursuing her Bachelor's of Social Work field study requirements; TJ Bryant, a first year Master of Divinity Student at Duke Divinity School where he is in the Thriving Communities Fellowship; and Erin Light, an Architecture student at the University of Southern California with a passion for spatial justice. We are so excited to start the new year with this dedicated group at our helm.

At the meeting, we also heard updates from the Criminal Justice Reform and Affordable Housing Action Teams. The CJR team will continue its gun violence listening sessions campaign and its Covid-propelled decarceration campaign into 2021. The Affordable Housing Team will have its first major action on January 27th @5:30pm at the Durham Housing Authority (DHA) Board Meeting. Durham CAN members will speak during the public comment period about our proposal to the DHA Board of Commissioners with the goal of changing the current eviction policies at the DHA. We ask that DHA: (1) change the policy on the “time of filing” to extend the court filing date to at least 90 days after the rent is due; and (2) require direct and documented communication between the property manager and resident prior to filing an eviction notice. Increasing the time before filing will allow for recently proposed eviction interventions to take place and will decrease the long-term harm for some residents as well as lower overall evictions which many elected leaders -- including our Mayor -- have repeatedly referred to publicly as “a crisis.”

26 member institutions pledge to bring 128 individuals to the Affordable Housing Team's action on the 27th:

Pledges:

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Next Steps

Attend the DHA Board Meeting Action on January 27@5:30pm 

Meeting ID: 880 2709 8927

Passcode: 820452

Dial In Numbers: 1-301-715-8592, 888-788-0099

Interested in joining an Action Team? Contact our team leaders for more information.

Affordable Housing: Ruth Petrea ([email protected]), Heather Ladd ([email protected])

Criminal Justice Reform: Robert Singagliese ([email protected]), James Stanley ([email protected])

Next Metro Council Meeting:

March 18, 2021 @6pm

https://zoom.us/j/95667655059?pwd=d3F6djZueEdWUjRwVWd4UEdBcUhkUT09