Residents of two downtown affordable housing communities, Willard Street and Ashton Place, are pushing the Durham City Council to take a stronger stance on tenants’ rights after ongoing issues with their landlord and property manager.
In March, residents formed the Willard Street United and Ashton Seniors in Action tenant unions to organize around what they describe as a laundry list of persistent issues with living conditions at the apartments: mold, lackluster repair jobs, security failures, rodents, and more.
At an August 6 work session, a handful of union members, along with Durham City Councilmember Nate Baker, asked the City Council to pass a resolution in support of the two tenants unions, which are affiliated with the Triangle Tenants Union and North Carolina Tenants Union. At a work session on Thursday, councilmembers debated whether to call out Willard Street, Ashton Place, and the buildings’ landlord DHIC specifically, or consider a broader resolution affirming the importance of tenant unions citywide and encouraging housing providers—especially buildings the city helped to fund—to engage with them…