Advocates call for affordable housing in Durham

The Area Median Income is what housing developments use to determine who gets access to subsidized housing.

in Durham, the AMI is $62,812 a year as of 2020.

The most generous developments at the moment offer 15% of their units to people making 60% AMI and below, meaning 15 out of every 100 units must be occupied by someone making $37,687 or less a year.

Over 6,000 Durham households currently live under the median income level, which is about 26,000 a year. A minimum wage worker would  have to work 23 hours a day to afford a basic 2 bedroom apartment.

Organizer Heeya Sen said the goal is to protect those even further below the AMI.

“A lot of the affordable housing people even get priced out," said Sen. "People who are making fixed income or minimum wage workers are not able to get into affordable housing units let alone purchase a home or find a house at market rate."

Community leaders Saturday were asking that 30 out of every 100 units be occupied by someone making around $19,000 a year or less.

“Part of this rally is also asking for a change in how decisions are being made about housing in general," said Sen. "We wanted to be more like this event where people are speaking from their lived experience of housing and security and we want people in power to be listening to those voices more than anything.”

Sen said she will continue campaigning through the years.