If elected, how would you ensure that older adults who live in Durham are included in zoning decisions, particularly individuals from communities that have been historically marginalized?
Accessibility and awareness on all fronts. Almost 95% of Durham didn’t vote in the last municipal election, and over 40% didn’t vote in the midterms. A significant portion of that group are senior citizens. For many, simply getting access to a computer or using a phone is incredibly difficult. Affording a phone and internet on a fixed income is already a barrier, and even when they are online, they often don’t know where to find zoning hearings, how to sign up, or when and where they’re being held.
Our city doesn’t do a good enough job publicizing or marketing these hearings. When it comes to attending in person, all the meetings are at City Hall Plaza, where parking is blocks away. For an 80-year-old who wants to participate, that walk can be physically impossible.
This is what I will change if elected to City Council. Our City Council should be prioritizing accessibility and awareness for everyone, especially our most marginalized and vulnerable populations. This is one of my core reasons I’m running: to bring information directly to the people and to empower through education. I will continue to do this long after my campaign.
Older adults especially must be included in zoning because rezoning has direct impacts on their lives. Every time City Council approves a rezoning, it almost always approves a major corporate rezoning, which means condos and apartments, taking land from Urban 5 or General Residential to PDR or Industrial Light, which strips away opportunities for Durham residents to ever own that land. For seniors, this means with the rising property value comes rising property taxes too. Our county commissioners moved reassessments from every eight years to every four years, which means those tax increases hit more frequently. On fixed incomes, many older residents are being forced back to work just to cover property taxes even after paying off their homes.
That is the silent housing crisis happening in Durham. Ensuring older adults are included in zoning is essential to protecting their livelihoods, homes, and future.
Do you support requiring developers to build accessible, affordable housing? We are aware of the state-level limitations on local municipalities.
Yes
If elected, how would you use the City’s contracting process to incentivize the expansion of affordable and accessible housing for older adults and people who have disabilities?
Durham has over 10,000 vacant units alone. That number does not account for the houses we see rotting away because legacy owners do not want to sell or repair them. This is where we need to act. Incentivize dormant and slumlord landlords by fully staffing and prioritizing our House in Disrepair service. I had to use this service myself for my block and for my 80-year-old neighbor, who was renting a home with a sunken-in roof and thought she had no power to make her landlord fix it. The solution to our housing crisis cannot be to keep building more houses and labeling it “affordable.” Housing is only as affordable as it is to our most impoverished resident. As long as Durham has an unhoused population, we do not have affordable housing. We must first utilize the housing stock we already have instead of prioritizing developers making millions of dollars on cheap Durham land that they can afford but lifelong residents, many of whom are trying to retire, cannot. This also means putting unused public property to work, including schools, the old police station, and historic properties, so that existing city assets are not sitting empty while people are in need of homes. The City should expand programs, subsidies, and grants for older adults so they do not have to go back to work just to survive. Right now we are handing out subsidies to developers instead of protecting our most vulnerable residents. That is unacceptable and it needs to stop. This is my approach and it is one that is unique to me and no other candidate or current member of City Council.
Durham currently has at least 1 public school building that is not being used. Considering the examples of New Bethel Homes and the Veranda at Whitted senior housing communities, do you support renovating former schools into housing for older adults?
Yes
Because of factors like low salaries, lack of professional advancement, the growing aging population and burnout – Durham has a shortage in people who are working in home health. One of the objectives in the City of Durham’s current strategic plan is to build a talented and competitive workforce. If elected, what will you do to support current home health workers?
Once again, the issue is accessibility and awareness. There are plenty of people who would love an opportunity to start home health jobs, but most of these jobs require certifications. How are people supposed to afford that education, and when are they supposed to do it while already working?
We need to expand our grants for the most vulnerable. That includes creating grants for trade schools and incentives for Durham residents to get trades, certifications, and licenses. We can partner with NCCU right here in Hayti Village, and we can even partner with Duke. We can partner with the No Zero Initiative plan as well. What we have to do is isolate the reasons people are not already pursuing these jobs: they cannot afford to, and they cannot afford the education needed to earn more.
I would also highlight what is happening right now in Hayti Village, next to the barbershop in Heritage Square, where classes are being offered to become an electrician at a price everyday people can afford. We need more of that, and the City of Durham should be supporting and expanding those opportunities instead of putting the responsibility on the community. That responsibility belongs within City Council chambers, where the budget can be reallocated to prioritize workforce development in critical fields like home health.
What is your vision for the City to support older adults so that they can age in-place safely and with dignity? If elected, how will you support organizations that are currently providing resources to older adults, including advocacy?
Accessibility and awareness: making sure seniors know about and can access programs, hearings, and services.
Housing stability: protecting them from displacement through rezoning, property tax hikes, and slumlord neglect.
Repurposing resources: using vacant units, schools, the old police station, and historic properties to provide housing and services for older adults.
Financial support: expanding grants, subsidies, and city-backed programs so seniors do not have to return to work.
Partnerships: working with and funding existing organizations already serving older adults, rather than duplicating efforts or leaving them under-resourced.
The federal bill H.R. 1 (Big Beautiful Bill) will significantly reduce access to essential resources that people in Durham need including SNAP, Medicaid and affordable health insurance through the Health Insurance Marketplace (Obamacare). If elected, give 2-3 examples of how you will support Durham’s collective well-being given that there will be less access to essential needs like food and healthcare.
Number one, slow down the developments immediately. In fact, I would say yield all major corporate developments now. They are eating up our resources and driving up our costs. And what’s worse is the majority of that labor force is not even sourced locally. That is money leaving our community while residents here are left struggling to afford food, housing, and healthcare.
Number two, City Council needs to do a complete audit and overhaul of the current budget and comprehensive plan now. No one on the current council has experience managing this much money in a budget that affects this many people. I have over a decade of it. I have already identified areas where the city is wasting money that could instead be redirected to grants and subsidies for residents. That is where our money should be going, not into padding developers’ pockets.
Number three, I would push for the city to draft rezoning requests right now to undo the more than ten major corporate rezonings approved this year alone. If those projects are built, property taxes will skyrocket and we will see even more unhoused older citizens in Durham. We cannot afford to let that happen. We need to stop it now.
