The Durham Housing Authority (DHA) showed off the new Vanguard Apartments in the heart of downtown Durham on Tuesday.
That project is part of a much larger redevelopment initiative of DHA properties downtown, something that's been talked about for years.
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The site is being developed in four phases.
Phase one is the Vanguard Apartments, which were finished this summer. There are 72 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments throughout the buildings.
In total, including the other phases, there will be 538 new mixed-income homes. Of those homes, 348 of those will be affordable, and 190 are market-rate.
It's a model that interim DHA CEO Anthony Snell believes will be successful.
“There's a lot of evidence that the original experiment didn't work, by just congregating people of a certain socioeconomic background in an area and not providing resources. What this is, is building communities,” Snell said. “We really worked on our communication with our residents and our communication with the stakeholders in the community."
Multiple DHA leaders and partners attended Tuesday morning’s celebration and ribbon-cutting.
“Today, we celebrate a promise kept,” Mayme Webb-Bledsoe, the Board Chair of the Durham Housing Authority told the crowd.
DHA partnered with Laurel Street Residential for the development, a company President and CEO Dionne Nelson described as “dedicated to affordable housing across the southeast.”
She told the crowd The Vanguard Apartments are nearly fully occupied already, and Laurel Street is committed to green residential building standards.
Durham Mayor Leonardo Williams told the crowd that this celebration will be the first of many to come.
"Folks always talk about affordable housing," Williams said. "They talk about it through a lens as if it's not happening. We are working. We are doing work together. We are producing. There are over 3,000 units in the pipeline right now and more are coming on board today."
This development will also include a community center, fitness-centered playgrounds, a central park and new commercial space along Main Street.
HUD Field Office Director Harry W. Miles said Durham is leading by example with this latest development, answering the call to the housing crisis. According to Zumper, the National Rent Index shows the median one-bedroom rent nationwide decreased 0.2% in August.
Phase 2 of the project, the Commerce Street Apartments, began in July of 2024 and is expected to be complete in September 2026. That phase will have 172 units in two four-story buildings, one for seniors, and the other for families.
Phase 3 is the Dillard Street Apartments, which will include 146 family units. Construction on the first 48 began in November of 2024 and is scheduled to be complete in June 2026; construction on the other 98 units will start this fall.
Phase 3 also includes the construction of the development’s community center and central park.
Phase 4 is the Main Street portion of the project, which will have 148 apartments and commercial space on the ground floor. Construction on that phase will start in 2026.