Durham Housing Authority announces successful financial close for the Villages of Hayti, an affordable housing development on Fayette Place. Integrating feedback from community organizations, the project is set to to end decades of vacancy and unfulfilled promises on the lot.
On the corner of Grant Street and East Umstead Street, in the Hayti district of Durham, a 20-acre lot sits behind fences and “no trespass” signs, riddled with crumbling concrete slabs. It is Fayette Place – an area vacant for decades that will be the site of a new affordable housing development called the Villages of Hayti.
The project was shaped in part by the efforts of community members, the Grant Street Ladies: Brenda Bradsher, Joanne Gunn Brown, Pamela K. Blake, Vivian Delois Gunn, and Dianne McKoy Merritt. Durham Congregations, Associations, and Neighborhoods, also known as Durham CAN, and Hayti Reborn also played a key role in advocating for the project and pushing for community input…