Summary 

We, the Bragtown Community Association need your help. Bragtown desperately needs more affordable housing, and the Sandy Ridge affordable development would bring 132 units of affordable housing for families and 66 units of affordable housing for seniors to the neighborhood. The BCA has spent countless hours advocating to ensure this development would make a difference for Bragtown residents. Now we are asking for support in advocating to receive gap funding available through the city’s Affordable Housing Bond. If gap funding is not allocated to projects in Bragtown, none of the 160 million included in this bond effort will be spent in the neighborhood. Bragtown Residents have increased property taxes due to this bond the city must invest back in our community rather than contribute to the wave of displacement. Please sign this petition to let Durham know that you support gap funding for the Sandy Ridge affordable development in Bragtown.

 

Thank you,

 

Vanessa Mason Evans

Chair of the Bragtown Community Association

 

Background:

Founded by emancipated, formerly enslaved people from the nearby Stagville plantation during Reconstruction, Bragtown has a critical legacy as one of Durham’s most important African American neighborhoods. Due in large part to historic discrimination emblematic of many minority neighborhoods throughout the South and partially due to a location that straddles City limits, Bragtown has experienced decades of underinvestment, both from the private development community and the City of Durham itself. Bragtown currently faces an existential housing crisis that threatens many of its legacy resident’s ability to continue to afford living in the neighborhood. The Sandy Ridge gap funding request is an opportunity for Durham to demonstrate its commitment to providing housing solutions for at risk Bragtown residents, including many from within the African American community already suffering from unequal access to living wages, education, healthcare, and employment opportunities.

Over the last decade (and most acutely over the last few years), the Bragtown neighborhood has been impacted by shifting demand for housing. Durham’s population growth continues to explode and Bragtown’s diversity, immediate proximity to Downtown and relatively low housing costs became attractive to the broader home buyer market for effectively the first time in neighborhood history. The increase in demand for Bragtown housing has led to a ~100% increase in house prices over the last 4 years, twice the price growth experienced across the rest of Durham. 

Bragtown’s legacy population was uniquely unprepared for such a significant increase in housing costs. Many of Bragtown’s residents rent (vs. own) their residences and haven’t experienced increases in income to match the increase in housing costs. Included in this population is a large community of African American senior citizens living on fixed incomes. As house prices increase, too many Bragtown residents are just receiving a higher rent check they can’t afford. The combined result of higher housing costs and low, stagnant household incomes is unfortunately predictable; Bragtown has begun to experience high levels of economic dislocation. Census data gives a window into lower income residents departing the neighborhood; between 2017 and 2019 (the most recent years applicable census data is available) median income for Bragtown has increased three times as fast as Durham City and County. 

This median income growth is being driven by higher income households arriving and lower income households leaving, as opposed to wage growth in the 9-12% range for Bragtown’s legacy lower income residents. This trend, along with the astronomical growth in house prices and housing costs, paints the clearest picture of the affordable housing crisis in the neighborhood. 

 

Sandy Ridge Development Overview

The Sandy Ridge affordable housing development is planned for northern Bragtown on ~12 acres along Old Oxford Rd. The development will include 132 units of family affordable housing and 66 units of senior affordable housing indistinguishable from market rate communities elsewhere in the Durham.

Sandy Ridge Villas will include 66 units available specifically for low-income senior households ages 55 and older, with 14 units at the 30% AMI level. All units will accept DHA Housing Choice Vouchers allowing the development to provide quality housing affordable to senior residents who earn between 15% and 70% of area median income in Durham County. The market rate quality amenity package for Sandy Ridge Villas includes 24-hour on-site management, elevators, a community park with a walking trail/benches/gazebo/gardening plots, fitness center, and community center with a full kitchen and an attached screened porch.

Sandy Ridge Station will include 132 one-, two- and three-bedroom units for low-income families, with 28 units at the 30% AMI level. All units will accept DHA Housing Choice Vouchers allowing the development to provide quality housing affordable to families who earn between 15% and 70% of area median income in Durham County. The market rate quality amenity package for Sandy Ridge Villas includes 24-hour on-site management, elevators, fitness center, computer/business center with free access to computers/Wi-Fi, dog park and a playground. Sandy Ridge Station will also include an outdoor pool/clubhouse facility, a hallmark of market rate apartment communities across the City, but the first affordable development in Durham to include one.

 

Affordable Housing Bond Context

Since the Affordable Housing Bond in 2019, the City of Durham has begun investing in affordable housing developments across the City. Projects like Willard Street, Farrington Road (Crescent Drive Apartments), 300 East Main and Ashton Place received millions of City investment and Durham Housing Authority recently announced redevelopments of Fayette Place and Forest Hill Heights. Almost all of this investment has been concentrated in and around Downtown Durham, prioritizing equitable housing access to “higher income” neighborhoods (like Downtown) and losing sight of other neighborhoods that are rapidly changing toward becoming “higher income” neighborhoods with residents disproportionately at risk of displacement. 

While we recognize that the City is juggling several priorities within its affordable housing strategy- it has completely ignored Bragtown to date. This is unacceptable. Bragtown is a 150-year-old, legacy African American neighborhood within Durham fighting to survive the threat of historic housing cost increases (house prices have doubled in the last four years). The City of Durham has an opportunity to change the historic narrative of its disinvestment in Bragtown. To do so, it must spend some of the $160M available for affordable housing strategies in Bragtown.

Durham is quickly spending the dedicated affordable housing funds raised via the Bond (and other sources). We must use our collective voice to ensure that the City does not continue to repeat harmful historical patterns and ignore Bragtown again. By signing this petition, you are helping the BCA demonstrate to Durham’s elected officials that Bragtown residents are worthy of investment and implementation of a strategy that combats displacement.