Concrete trucks and excavators are now a regular sight at 902 S. Briggs Avenue, where Durham Technical Community College is finally turning its affordable housing plans into actual buildings. On the school-owned lot, crews are working on a 124-unit apartment community that will reserve roughly a quarter of its units for Durham Tech students. The project grew out of a 2019 college survey that found more than half of students had experienced housing insecurity. College and development leaders say the remaining apartments will be open to Durham families and other renters across the city, with initial move-ins expected in 2027.
Construction and timeline
Work at 902 S. Briggs Ave. officially kicked off in April 2026, with construction teams preparing two residential buildings and the supporting site infrastructure on the roughly 10-acre parcel, according to Durham Technical Community College. The college says an interest list for prospective tenants is expected to open early next year, and the first residents are projected to move in during fall 2027. That schedule gives developers time to complete low-income housing tax-credit paperwork and to finalize tenant eligibility rules.
Who the apartments will serve
As reported by The News & Observer, the development will offer a mix of one- to three-bedroom units. About 25% of the apartments are set aside for Durham Tech students. Just over half of the units will be targeted to households earning between 30% and 70% of the area median income, and roughly 27 apartments will be reserved for households under 30% AMI.
The same reporting notes the broader rental squeeze these numbers are up against, citing Zillow figures that put average asking rents for one-bedroom units around $1,391 and two-bedroom units up to about $1,700 in Durham.
Funding and partners
According to Durham Technical Community College, Mosaic Development Group is serving as the lead developer, while Banc of America Community Development Corporation is providing financing support. U.S. Rep. Valerie Foushee’s office says she secured a $620,000 federal appropriation for the project, which adds to local financial commitments from the city and county, according to her press release. When the plan was first announced in 2022, it carried an estimated price tag of roughly $29 million, as covered by Chapelboro.
Why this matters in Durham
Nearly half of renters in Durham County, about 48%, are considered cost-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing and utilities, according to the N.C. Housing Coalition county profile. That pressure, paired with the college’s own 2019 survey finding that more than half of Durham Tech students experienced housing insecurity, is the backdrop that college and community leaders point to as they argue for the project’s importance…