December 17, 2025

Mayor Williams and members of the Durham City Council:

The People’s Alliance Housing Team congratulates those who ran for office this election cycle, and we are looking forward to working with all of you in this next iteration of the Durham City Council. 

This electoral season was unusually stressful at a fraught time in our country. The level of divisiveness both in the election and during public Council debates has felt personal and unnecessarily alienating. Put simply, it doesn’t have to be this way. 

This new City Council presents an opportunity to turn the page and work constructively together. 

We feel that Durham can set an example for the rest of North Carolina about how to stay strong and united in the face of authoritarian threats at the state and national levels.  We firmly believe and have heard you echo each other around shared values. We know most of you fundamentally agree on many issues

The PA membership believes in collaboration as shared responsibility to the whole and for our leaders to lean into difficult conversations. We expect democracy at its best to be iterative, deliberative and civil.

As a governing body in 2026 there are many important pending housing issues and decisions. To effectively meet them we suggest establishing communication norms that include showing respect for one another's strengths, intentional debate and moving toward consensus.  

We have high expectations particularly around housing given the stakes. We expect: 

• the Council to pursue all avenues so that the business community and developers know that our leaders have progressive goals for our City and high expectations for affordable housing. 
• you to be bold and think outside of the box. 
• the City Staff and elected officials to find systemic ways to hear from neighborhoods in the same way you hear regularly from the Chamber, the PA and other groups. 

We know much of that work is ongoing and we would like to work with each of you to communicate more regularly on actions the city is taking and the challenges and opportunities presented. Thank you for your service. We are all looking forward to working with you and members of City Staff on these shared goals. Look for the team and members of PA to be reaching out to discuss in the new year.

With appreciation, 

The Housing Action Team of People’s Alliance

Mayor Leo Williams 

Mayor Pro Tempore Mark Anthony-Middleton

Councilmember Nate Baker

Councilmember Javiera Caballero

Councilmember Chelsea Cook

Councilmember DeDreana Freeman

Councilmember Carl Rist 

October 16, 2025

Mayor Williams and Council Members:

The People’s Alliance Housing Team wanted to express its unanimous, resounding support of the tenant’s rights ordinance expected to be placed on the October 20, 2025 agenda. 

We hope it similarly receives a unanimous endorsement from the Mayor and all members of Council.   

As one of our members, Milo Graber, who has been one of the advocates urging the city to take up the ordinance, wrote in a recent Op-Ed, “By passing this ordinance, we can give tenants and their attorneys a powerful tool to enforce basic standards of habitability in their homes and even the playing field in eviction court.”

We have heard the concerns voiced by the City Attorney about this ordinance. In this case, we hope the Mayor and members of Council go to bat for renters in a state that offers few protections for those at the mercy of a bad landlord. As you know, renters make up nearly 50% of Durham’s population. 

We know some members of Council are considering an alternative proposal for city staff to be able to wield new tools to force landlords to comply with property violations. We hope those efforts could co-exist with, rather than replace, this proposed ordinance, which puts more legal power in tenants and their attorney’s hands directly. We believe the Council should not wait to vote on the existing proposal as heard in the last two work sessions.  

Further, the same ordinance has been part of the housing code in Charlotte since 2007, in Pineville since 2008, and in Pittsboro since 2022. They’ve never been challenged by the state. Both Legal Aid and private housing attorneys have successfully used Charlotte’s similar ordinance in their legal advocacy on behalf of tenants with unrepaired housing code violations in their units. One such lawsuit on behalf of hundreds of Charlotte tenants resulted in a very favorable 2020 settlement.

The “imminently dangerous” housing code violations in that Charlotte housing complex included, among others, unrepaired plumbing and electrical problems. Attorneys were able to rely in part on a section of Charlotte’s Minimum Housing Code (upon which the proposed Durham Housing Code is based) to achieve an important settlement for tenants who were treated unfairly, as the landlord continued to require tenants to pay rent even while the very serious Housing Code violations were found to remain unrepaired.

We hope that our elected leaders would similarly want fair outcomes through the legal system for tenants at the mercy of unscrupulous landlords.To forgo adopting this important tool to enforce minimum habitability requirements in Durham, based on some possible legal response that may or may not occur in the future, would be shortsighted. We hope that the City will see this as an opportunity to defend the rights of the least powerful and those in the most precarious housing situations. That is exactly what we should expect from our city administrators.

Thank you for your efforts and service to our city, and thank you for your time and consideration to this matter.

With appreciation.  

The People’s Alliance Housing Team 

Members:

Jeremy Borden, (PA Member)

Milo Graber (Lead, Riverside HS Affordable Housing Team, PA Member)

Jack Holtzman (PA Member)

Ann Rebeck (PA coordinator, PA Member)

Henry Sniezek(PA Member)

Helena Cragg, Durham resident 

Ron Westlund (PA Member)

Dear Mayor Williams, Mayor Pro-Tem Middleton, and Councilmembers Baker, Caballero,  Cook, Freeman and Rist:

The organizations listed below believe that the Durham City Council’s decision at its June 5 Work Session to end negotiations with the Peebles Corporation creates a unique opportunity at the 505 site to address the City’s worsening affordable housing crisis without further delay.  At the Work Session, we were pleased to hear that a majority of Council members expressed a desire to proceed now with building a significant # of affordable units at 505.

We call on the Council, as our duly elected representatives, to direct City staff to move forward immediately with a plan to build a minimum of 130 units of rental housing affordable in perpetuity to families earning 60% of AMI.  Specifically, we call on Council to direct the City Manager and City Staff to:

1.  Within 90 days, select a qualified affordable housing developer with a successful track record in Durham and North Carolina to partner with the City to develop and implement a plan to build a minimum of 130 units of affordable rental housing at 505;
2.  Work with the selected developer to create a plan acceptable to the City and the developer for building the affordable units and sufficient parking facilities on a portion of the 505 site; and 
3.  Within 90 days of selecting the developer, return to City Council with the plan and a proposed contract with the developer for Council’s consideration and approval.

The following points inform our request:

• An RFP process is not required for the City Council to move forward with affordable housing, which it has named as its first priority at the site. The City Attorney clearly indicated at the June 5 meeting that the City could enter into a sole source agreement with a developer to address a public need.

• At least two highly qualified affordable housing developers with experience in Durham and NC – Laurel Street Partners and DHIC – have indicated an interest in engaging with the City to proceed with construction of affordable housing on the portion of the 505 site that does not include the Milton Small Building (MSB). 

• This approach was one of the 3 possible pathways outlined by City Staff in its memo to Council: “Pursue Smaller Scale Redevelopment” (a) Solicit a developer for Milton Small and/or affordable housing and b) Add surface parking and open space.”

• We are concerned that yet another extended planning process for the 505 site – such as a master planning process -- will cause unacceptable delays in addressing the City’s affordable housing crisis.  The best time to build affordable housing is now, when the market for commercial office space and higher endor market rate housing is “soft.” 

• For this major tract of City property strategically located in Durham’s downtown, we continue to favor a long-term ground lease to the developer, or equivalent protections for the City’s interests and for the welfare of the residents of any affordable housing built at 505.

• We remain committed to building units affordable in perpetuity at 60% of AMI.  We encourage the use of DHA project-based vouchers to make a portion of the units affordable to families at 30% AMI.

• We take no position on the advisability of preserving the MSB. Adequate space exists on the remainder of the 4.4 acre site to accommodate 130+ units of affordable rental units and sufficient parking, while leaving room for other forms of development (housing, retail, commercial) as market conditions improve. 

We would appreciate the opportunity to meet with you in the next few weeks to discuss this request. In the meantime, thank you for your consideration of this opportunity to address Durham’s critical need for affordable housing.

Sincerely,

Rick Larson, on behalf of

Duke Memorial United Methodist Church

Durham Coalition for Affordable Housing and Transit

Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People 

Durham People’s Alliance