DURHAM – Construction has begun on The Villages at Hayti.

Amidst crashing sounds from bulldozers and excavators, the official groundbreaking ceremony took place Wednesday at the 20-acre site along Merrick Street.

The Villages is a mixed-income and mixed-use development of 252 apartments for workers earning 30% to 80% of area median income.

The groundbreaking begins the first phase of construction, which includes a mix of 81 one-bedroom, 113 two-bedroom, and 58 three-bedroom apartments owned by the Durham Housing Authority. The project has been long awaited by the Hayti community.

Monument of Faith Pastor Clarence Laney gave context to the significance of the development.

“Many of you know what urban renewal really meant: the clearing of our community in the name of progress,” he said. “Today, we are here because somebody held on.”

The Villages will be “a testament that Durham’s full story is still being written, and that the people of Hayti hold the pen.”

DHA former interim CEO Anthony Snell referenced poet Langston Hughes’ work, “A Dream Deferred.”

“That dream is deeply embedded in this community,” Snell said. “Today, we are here as a result of that dream.”

The Durham Housing Authority is the Bull City’s largest provider of affordable housing, he said.

The site is the former location of Fayette Place, a public housing community that was demolished in 2009. It remained vacant for years.

Durham Community Partners, a community body overseeing the design and intention behind the development, included key leaders associated with Durham CAN, Hayti Reborn Community Advisory Council, W.G. Pearson Center, North Carolina Central University, Grant Street Ladies and the Hayti Heritage Center.

“I am so proud that we could at least begin that dream for the community that is still here, that remember those days years ago that you fought for,” Mayme Webb-Bledsoe, chair of the DHA Board of Commissioners, said.

The project is made possible through multiple funding streams, including a $95 million affordable housing bond, which, at the time it was approved in 2019, was the largest in the state’s history.

“People started watching, and it set precedence for the state of North Carolina and all over the country,” Mayor Leonardo Williams said. “I always say Tyquan deserves the same amenities and quality of life as Thomas, and that’s what we’re doing.”

He also said the city contributed $17 million in additional funds for the Villages at Hayti.

The development is 100% funded through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, thanks to the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency. Twenty-six units are specifically designated as mobility-impaired units for people with disabilities or individuals experiencing homelessness.

Other development partners are BLWall Consulting, Gilbane Development Company, North Carolina Central, Harmony Housing Affordable Development, Inc., and F7 International Development.

Bob Tenger, development director for the site, said the project reminds him of the African proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

“There’s no one person that could have said they could’ve got us to the point we are today,” he said.

James Montague, president of F7 International Development, emphasized the significance of Durham’s strong community. Coming from Southeast Raleigh’s Southgate neighborhood, Montague said  the community advisory councils had been disbanded.

“...which took away the voice of the people in the community that so much needed to be heard,” he said. “That’s why every street that you go in Southeast Raleigh that used to be the Black side of town and the hood, they got million-dollar houses now.

“I can assure that’s not happening here,” he said. “Durham is different.”

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