Durham mayor has outside-the-box idea to help the housing crisis

Durham City Council is getting creative when it comes to making the city more affordable.

Just last week Mayor Elaine O’Neal shared a plan where the city will purchase homes, then sell the homes at affordable prices to Durham residents that want to live there.

She says she wants to give council the rest of the month to think about the plan.

The outside-of-the-box idea comes as home prices soar – and inventory runs low.

Terrell Blunt says buying a home in Durham has been frustratingly difficult.

“Every time I would reach out to a realtor, the property was being snatched," he says.

Blunt fell in love with Durham after moving there from New Jersey to take a job at RTP. In the months that followed, he's tried to purchase a house -- only to be priced out.

Now he is looking at a major increase to his rent.

"Part of me leaving New Jersey was having a low cost of living, but that hasn’t been the case," he says.

Blunt loves the mayor's idea.

“I think that is a brilliant idea it brings more equitable opportunity to lower and middle class people," he says.

Mayor O’Neal says starting next month she wants to move forward with a plan to make Durham more affordable.