The old Durham Police Department headquarters has sat empty for almost eight years, and now community leaders are urging the city to put the property to use as Durham faces what many are calling an affordable housing crisis.
For nearly eight years, Duke Memorial United Methodist Church’s lead pastor, the Rev. Heather Rodrigues, has looked out at the four-acre property along West Chapel Hill Street, once home to the Durham Police Department. She, along with Mick Raynor, the church’s minister of pastoral care, is calling on city leaders to move quickly.
“Our call from day one, seven years, that space across the street should include the neighbors who need affordable housing, and need it now,” said Rodrigues…