{"id":102,"date":"2026-05-15T20:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T20:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/northcarolinamovingjournal.com\/?p=102"},"modified":"2026-05-15T20:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T20:05:11","slug":"durhams-villages-of-hayti-redevelopment-to-honor-the-past-with-affordable-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northcarolinamovingjournal.com\/?p=102","title":{"rendered":"Durham\u2019s Villages of Hayti redevelopment to honor the past with affordable housing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Durham Housing Authority (DHA) broke ground this week on Villages of Hayti, a long-awaited affordable housing project that will include 252 affordable housing units in the historic Black Hayti community.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The site\u2019s redevelopment has been a long time coming, as several speakers acknowledged during a sentimentally charged groundbreaking attended by more than 300 people and lasting more than two hours.<\/span><\/p>\n

Decades of long and sometimes contentious debate over redeveloping the old Fayette Place site made this week\u2019s groundbreaking deeply personal for Black residents old enough to remember Hayti.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cToday is a moment many of us prayed for and never gave up on,\u201d said Brenda Bradsher, who lives in the Grant Street community that includes the Villages of Hayti.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bradsher, 80, is one of the \u201cLadies of Grant Street.\u201d Their story of advocacy and persistence in preserving the last surviving block of the Hayti neighborhood is captured in a documentary that premiered last month.<\/span><\/p>\n

She has lived on Grant Street all of her life and remembers a thriving Black community before urban renewal brought the Durham Freeway to take out large chunks of Hayti in the early 1960s.<\/span><\/p>\n

In its heyday, the Hayti District in Durham, which includes the Villages of Hayti site, was a bustling hub of commerce and culture and the center of Durham\u2019s Black community. It boasted more than 200 Black-owned businesses, including banks, insurance companies and theaters.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole section was Black-owned, and it was something that we were proud of,\u201d Bradsher told NC Newsline in an interview. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have to go downtown for anything. We had everything we wanted in Hayti.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bradsher also remembers the early promises of redevelopment that never materialized after Fayetteville Street Apartments was demolished in 2009 after falling into disrepair.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The public housing community was built in the late 1960s to replace residential areas razed to make way for the freeway. In 2007, DHA sold the property to a developer who planned to build student housing (Fayette Place) for N.C. Central University students. The apartments were never built, so in 2017, DHA exercised its options to buy back the property.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe got tired of it just sitting there,\u201d Bradsher said. \u201cSo we started asking DHA to buy it back so something could be done about it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At the groundbreaking, Bishop Clarence Laney, senior pastor of Monument Faith Church, a neighborhood church, set the tone for the event.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody kept the vision alive through decades of neglect and indifference and deference while the rest of downtown boomed and this land set silent,\u201d Laney said. \u201cWell, this morning the silence is over. Today, we do not simply break ground \u2013 we fulfill a promise.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mayme Webb-Bledsoe, chair of the housing authority\u2019s board of commissioners, called the groundbreaking historic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cToday, what we\u2019re witnessing is a moment in history that we can all be proud of,\u201d Webb-Bledsoe said. \u201cThis is more than a groundbreaking ceremony; it is a celebration of vision, partnership, perseverance, and community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Anthony Snell, the former CEO of the housing authority, used Langston Hughes\u2019 \u201cHarlem\u201d (A Dream Deferred) to frame the moment, offering that the dream of redeveloping the property didn\u2019t \u201cexplode,\u201d at least not in a \u201creally disruptive, really negative\u201d sense.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI would like for us to think about an alternative explosion that\u2019s wrapped around hope, excitement, growth, a seed that has been planted, that comes forth, a community that is reborn because people will not allow that dream to wither away,\u201d said Snell, now a consultant on the project.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The first phase of the Villages of Hayti will include a mix of 81 one-bedroom, 113 two-bedroom, and 58 three-bedroom apartments across nine garden-style walk-up buildings. Twenty-four units are set aside and designed for residents with mobility impairments or for individuals experiencing homelessness.<\/span><\/p>\n

Outdoor amenities include a 1,700-square-foot playground, shaded seating areas and a covered picnic pavilion.<\/span><\/p>\n

The development is structured as a 100% Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) development, with all units restricted to households earning between 30% and 80% of area median income. According to Census data, the median income in Durham is approximately $82,300. <\/span><\/p>\n

The $85 million project includes $17 million in funding from the City of Durham. \u201cI just want to say how proud I am to be mayor of a city where we put our values on our sleeves and wear it brightly,\u201d Durham Mayor Leonardo Williams said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Project partners include DHA and Durham Community Partners, comprised of Harmony Housing Affordable Development, Gilbane Development and F7 Development.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Hayti community has such a strong legacy,\u201d said Bobvala Tengen, development director at Gilbane. \u201cThere were moments during this history where we thought the best things were behind us \u2026 so much of the work that we\u2019ve done today is to ensure that the best days are not behind us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Future phases of the redevelopment, according to DHA, will add for-sale townhome ownership opportunities to support generational wealth and long-term neighborhood stability. Multifamily housing, commercial spaces to support local businesses and cultural and community spaces are also planned for future phases of the Villages of Hayti.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Durham is fighting an uphill battle to provide enough affordable housing, particularly for low-income residents. The<\/span> reported last year that Durham is short 25,000 housing units for low-income and working-class families.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Voters in Durham approved a $95 million affordable housing bond referendum in 2019 to address housing insecurity and homelessness. The city and DHA were awarded a $40 million federal Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant in 2022 to redevelop aging public housing communities.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A redevelopment of public housing takes shape in Durham\u2019s downtown<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n