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. 

The Durham Community Partners, which includes Gilbane Development, Harmony Housing, and F7 International Development, are the investors behind the initiative. The Durham Housing Authority (DHA) announced a financial close for the project on March 9.

The first phase of construction is expected to be completed in 2028. 

“This site specifically has sat vacant for longer than anyone in the city had wanted it to,” said Kerrace Pressley, the development manager at Harmony Housing. “There were a lot of aspirations around what was going to happen that never came to fruition. So the closing of the $85 million deal should make people feel comfortable that work is getting done.”

Progress After Decades of Delay 

Phase one of the project will include 252 garden-style apartment units, featuring one, two, and three-bedroom homes. They are designed for households earning 30% to 80% of the area median income in Durham.

Thirty percent AMI in Durham is about $23,850 for a one-person household, while 80% is about $64,800.

The Villages of Hayti will also include playgrounds, covered picnic areas, walking paths and parking. Henry McKoy, founder of Hayti Reborn, said that although the initiative leaves some requests out, it is progress.

“I’m so thankful to the community and the Grant Street women, that we’re still around to see a vision and a dream come to pass,” said Tanya Johnson, co-chair of Durham CAN.

A Long History of Empty Promises

The story of Fayette Place is tied to Hayti, a once-thriving Black community known as the “Black Wall Street” of Durham, with over 200 Black-owned businesses and thousands of Black residents. 

The community was torn apart by the construction of the Durham freeway in the late 1950s, displacing over 4,000 Black families, according to a project done by BullCity 150. In 1967, the DHA built public housing on Fayette Place for families relocated by urban renewal.

In 2009, the public housing was demolished, and the DHA sold the property to a private developer. While affordable and student housing for North Carolina Central University was planned, funding and developer issues stalled progress, and the lot sat vacant for decades.

“When the public housing went down, they always promised that something else would be put there, and it never was,” Hayti resident and co-founder of nonprofit BLK South, Kendall Dooley, said. “The Grant Street Ladies have been wanting something to happen there for a long time.”

Durham CAN and the Grant Street Ladies lobbied for years to get the site back in the DHA’s hands. In 2017, their efforts were realized when the Housing Authority bought the property back with money from the City of Durham.

“It took a lot of hands and a lot of work to be able to get that done,” Johnson said.

A Fight for More

The community did not stop there. Since developers took over the site, they’ve pushed for specific features to be in the plans. Pressley said even the name of the development was derived from community feedback.

Another aspect Hayti residents pushed for was homeownership.

“Initially, as a part of the RFP there was no homeownership piece,” said James Montague, president of F7 International Development. “That was something that was requested by the Grant Street Ladies.”

F7 International is the developer behind the 40 to 60 townhomes that will be included in the project. According to Montague, phase one of the townhomes will be on Merritt Street and phase two on the corner of Grant and Umstead.

Montague said they want “long-term home ownership,” with deed restrictions to discourage investors from buying and reselling.

Community members also pushed for commercial space on Fayetteville Street. Meant to provide job opportunities, the 30,000 square foot space will include small businesses such as restaurants, smoothie shops, barber shops and possibly a grocery store.

Montague said they are looking for business owners who are either from the community or want to “serve and reinvest back into the community.” For him, commercial development is key to ensuring affordable housing does more than house people – it should also build wealth.

“Affordable housing has two sides to it… on one level, it’s like, how do you push down the cost of housing?” McKoy said. “The other side is actually lifting people’s incomes up.”

For Dooley, the difference between “predatory” developers and community-minded ones is the time they take to build relationships and listen to residents. Johnson said that although Durham Community Partners were not initially responsive to community feedback, they improved, holding outreach meetings in 2022 and 2024. 

“I do think the community pushed and did not give up until their voice was heard,” Johnson said. “I think the developers did a good job joining together. It’s a partnership, and I’m hoping other areas will take this blueprint.”

Johnson hopes the Villages of Hayti can provide housing for residents who were priced out or displaced from Durham. 

“The change has been great,” Johnson said. “The places that are being developed are beautiful. But if those who are residents of Durham can’t share in it, we have a ways to go.” 

Edited by Mary Mungai and Medha Nair