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What Is Durham Choice?

What Is

Durham Choice?

What Is Durham Choice?

Investing In People And Neighborhoods

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An artist 's impression of a large apartment building with cars parked in front of it.

Durham Choice 

An affordable housing partnership

Durham Choice is a partnership between the Durham Housing Authority (DHA) and the City of Durham to expand affordable housing opportunities in Durham and ensure that low-income residents have the opportunity to live in high quality housing in great neighborhoods. The focus of Durham Choice is on the redevelopment of two aging public housing properties in downtown Durham, 519 E. Main and Liberty Street Apartments. The program is supported by a $40 million Choice Neighborhoods Implementation grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The Challenge Facing Public Housing 

The Durham Housing Authority owns 1,100 units of public housing built between 1953 and 1981. Like many public housing authorities across the county, DHA has recognized that the only way to preserve these aging affordable homes is to take them out of the public housing program. The federal government has created several programs that allow housing authorities to convert public housing to affordable housing with project-based vouchers. The conversion process will allow DHA to access other funding sources for redevelopment that are not available to public housing, while still serving the same extremely low-income households that live in public housing today.

Because the modest rents paid by public housing residents are not sufficient to cover the operation and maintenance of existing housing, housing authorities rely on federal funding to cover these costs.  Unfortunately, Congress has not adequately funded public housing for decades.  This has led to an $80 billion (and growing) backlog of public housing repairs nationwide and contributed to a declining public housing inventory, as some units become so dilapidated that they are no longer fit for habitation. 

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The Choice Neighborhoods Program

In September 2022, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded a $40 million Choice Neighborhoods Implementation (CNI) grant to DHA and the City of Durham to support the redevelopment of 519 E. Main and Liberty Street Apartments.  Durham was one of four cities across the county that received a CNI award that year.   

The HUD Choice Neighborhoods Program leverages public and private dollars to support a comprehensive approach to neighborhood transformation focused on three core goals: 

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Replace distressed public housing with high-quality mixed-income housing;

Housing

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People

Improve the well-being of public housing residents through education, employment, and health care assistance;

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Neighborhood

Invest in the neighborhood where the public housing is located to help create a safe, desirable community.

The Impact of Durham Choice 

Durham Choice will advance the vision outlined in the DHA Downtown and Neighborhood Plan (DDNP) of redeveloping public housing in a way that public housing residents into the larger community and expands the available affordable housing stock in Durham. 

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Ensure that all existing residents of the 519 E. Main and Liberty Street site can return to the redeveloped property, if they choose to do so.

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Durham Choice Target Neighborhood

Through the 519 E. Main and Liberty Street redevelopment, DHA and the City will:

Replace 214 units of aging public housing with 555 mixed-income units, including 348 affordable and 207 market-rate apartments.

Engage with DHA residents to provide access to health services and educational and employment training opportunities that enable residents to pursue their personal goals.

Invest in the surrounding neighborhood by providing small business assistance and supporting community institutions.

A map of a city with a red border and a green line.
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