Durham County Board of Commissioners: Nida Allam

Name as it appears on the ballot: Nida Allam 

Age: 30 

Party affiliation: Democrat 

Campaign website: www.nidaallam.com 

Occupation & employer: State Director, Care in Action 

1) In your view, what are the most important issues currently facing Durham County? If elected, what would be your top three priorities? 

If I have the honor of continuing my service, my top three priorities will be as follows: 1. Getting on a regular bond schedule to fund our schools. We must ensure that every child in Durham has access to a high quality public education. 

2. Tackling economic inequity and increasing job access for Durham County residents. Durham is an innovation hub constantly attracting new businesses, but we need to work with them to make sure our residents and students are the top candidates for those new jobs. 

3. Solving the housing crisis. With the increasing number of businesses coming to Durham, we also see an unfortunate, concerning, steep increase in the cost of living across the county—especially when it comes to housing. The county has worked to build our own affordable housing units with the 300 and 500 E. Main St. projects, but we need to work more collaboratively with the schools and the city to expand our investment in housing. 

2) Durham Public Schools has been roiled by issues relating to salary increases for about 1,300 classified staff members. What is the county’s role in ensuring these staff members are paid according to their work experience and to the recommendations of a 2023 pay study commissioned by DPS? How can the county work more closely with the school board to ensure a situation like this doesn’t occur again? 

As a lifelong product of North Carolina public schools, I could not be more committed to their growth, development, and sustained success. Growing up, I watched my mom go to work every day as a public school teacher with a focus on classrooms for students who receive exceptional services. Her dedication to her students ingrained in me a deep respect for the educators who give so much of themselves to support our schools—including and especially classified staff. 

For years, I have advocated for a wage increase across the board, for all county employees. I understand the vital need deeply and intimately. At the bare minimum, salaries need to go up—and our classified staff need to be making a true living wage of $23 per hour. Over time, in cooperation with the state, this will mean securing a base salary increase for teachers across our county. I also want to see wage increases and new positions for classified staff, ESL teachers, and EC teachers like my mom, who I know firsthand make the difference between a positive school environment and a crisis. Filling those gaps in employment is essential not just for student outcomes, but for teacher health, safety, and ability to withstand burnout.

By laying out a multi-year plan to make all of these policies a reality, I am confident that the county can consolidate support behind these urgent staffing and pay needs. This will have to be a collaborative effort between the county, the school board, and the state—and I am ready and willing to take on that challenge. Personally, I will leverage any space I can, including my role on the NCACC board of directors, to advocate for public school funding, both at the county level and across the state. I am proud that the county has hired a lobbyist to help secure the budget for these reforms and ensure that the state does its part to fill in the existing needs. Because ultimately, we cannot enact this bold agenda if the state doesn’t meet us halfway. 

3) Voters passed a $423.5 million school construction bond in 2022, but due to rising construction costs, that money is running out quickly. Should Durham put another education bond before voters? What is the most sustainable way to address new construction and renovation of existing school facilities as Durham continues to grow?

We just passed the largest school bond in county history, which will improve access for so many children. It’s an incredible accomplishment, but as stated above, it’s just the first step in providing a high-quality education to all of our DPS students. 

To address rising costs of construction and continuously invest in innovative school environments, it’s imperative that we get on a regular bond schedule. This is the best way to assure that a child’s zip code doesn’t determine their access to resources or ability to encounter diversity. Fully funding renovation, construction, and development of facilities will have incredible downstream impacts—raising the bar for high-quality, diverse, accessible learning environments that attract students of all backgrounds back from private schools and charters. 

4) Although it owns a significant amount of property in Durham and has a $12 billion endowment, Duke for the most part doesn’t pay taxes to the city or county. Some private universities, such as Yale, contribute millions of dollars to the towns in which they are located. Should county (and city) leaders consider asking Duke to contribute payments to the city/county for housing or other initiatives in lieu of paying taxes?

Universities in North Carolina are legally exempt from property taxes in accordance with state law. This is another flawed and unjust way that the state legislature limits the powers of local government to make principled decisions about what’s best for our communities. The state legislature not only refuses to fully fund our schools and pay a living wage, they actively hold us back from being able to do so on our own—by expanding our tax base to include wealthy institutions like Duke. Just one among so many ways that they hold our residents back. 

Given these restrictions, we must find another way to collaborate with Duke to secure financial support. Duke as an institution benefits immeasurably from our community—our labor, our entrepreneurship, our resources—and in turn, Duke has an obligation to invest back in our county. At present, Duke provides some grants to the city and county, and partners with us on innovative education programs and restorative justice initiatives, but these measures are not nearly equal to their would-be tax contributions. On the county level, our main source of revenue is property taxes, and given Duke’s physical footprint in the county, we are losing revenue on a significant portion of our tax base. That burden ends up falling on everyday residents who want to fund our schools, public health, and public safety. 

If Duke were to follow Yale’s model and escalate their giving to the city and county, it would not only help us fund these essential programs, but also demonstrate their long-term commitment to the community. We can work in partnership, but only if both parties show up to the table. 

5) What is your vision for growth and development throughout Durham? How can the county balance growth while also ensuring gentrification doesn’t push long term residents out? 

Since the days of Black Wall Street, Durham has always been a hub for innovation, entrepreneurship, and business development. Our county should continue to seek out economic development and attract new businesses, but we should balance that priority with our commitment to keeping residents right here, in their homes and in our community. 

One critical step in that process is to continue pushing new companies to hire Durham residents through partnerships with our public schools, Durham Tech, and other jobs training programs across the county. We should take into account the environmental impact of each company—promoting sustainable building certifications for offices, sustainable life cycle analysis for manufacturing to minimize waste and carbon emissions, and overall enforcing restrictions on pollution that damages our residents’ quality of life. 

In addition, as more companies come to Durham County, we should recommit to expanding our tax assistance programs that keep longtime residents in place—so that rising property values don’t exacerbate an ongoing displacement crisis. We have strong programs targeting seniors, veterans, low-income residents, and more, and we must reinforce, expand, and universalize them to relieve the burden of property taxes across the county. 

6) What should the county government be doing to further housing affordability? What additional steps can the county take to assist those living in substandard public housing? What should the county be doing to support people who are not in control of their own housing (including renters, the unhoused, and those whose homes are owned by banks) as costs of living skyrocket? 

The housing crisis continues to plague families across North Carolina, and it is particularly devastating here in Durham County, where the cost of living is rising, new residents are constantly joining our community, and patterns of gentrification and disinvestment have cycled through our history. To address this crisis, we should pursue a multi-pronged strategy. 

First, we should continue to expand permanently supportive housing—to meet the needs of our most marginalized community members. In partnership with incredible organizations like Housing for New Hope, we voted this June to maintain the Carver Creek apartments as affordable housing, and expand them to provide onsite substance abuse treatment, mental health care, and wraparound support for residents. We need to continue to find more

opportunities to maintain protective covenants where possible, rather than letting affordable housing expire and convert to market rate—and expand our PSH offerings with onsite services. 

Second, we must continue to innovate on our tax relief programming to keep longtime residents in their homes. The Board of County Commissioners has passed strong tax relief programs specifically targeted to older community members, disabled residents, veterans, and low-income residents. The tax relief programs ensure that these vulnerable members of our community can remain in their homes despite the rising cost of living—and continue to benefit from the economic growth they’ve helped generate. 

Finally, we must get creative with our resources to maximize funds for new housing projects, home loans, and zoning policies. For example: through the American Rescue Plan Act, Durham County received over $62 million to support broadband access, housing insecurity, food insecurity, revenue loss, and infrastructure reinforcement. By collaborating with local banks and economic empowerment organizations to leverage the federal funds to generate more revenue, we have been able to maximize those resources for creative community development through guaranteed basic income, education and workforce development, new permanent supportive housing, and more. We can fill gaps in housing if we think beyond the traditional means of supply. 

7) What do you envision as the future of mass transit in Durham? What initiatives would you like to support? What do you believe to be a viable next step? 

Every survey we take regarding transit comes back with the same overwhelming results: Durham County residents want more buses. We need to listen to our residents. Yes, we want large scale projects, which is why we’re looking at the passenger rail and other inter-county options; but the most effective way we can serve Durham County’s current needs is by expanding the bus program to assure the quality, consistency, and reliability of service. 

In all of these projects, we should act in close collaboration between county and city to marshal our shared resources wisely. And we should go after federal dollars as aggressively as possible, because we have the vision to think bigger and we need a budget to match. Finally, on bus and rail options alike, we must work in line with our neighboring counties—Wake, Orange, and Chatham—to model connected transit for North Carolina and across the country. 

8) What can the county do to address violent crime? What are the preventative steps the county can or should take with regard to mental health? What programs are in place elsewhere in the country that you would like to see implemented here?

Our county must continue taking bold, creative steps to reimagine public safety—both in our approach to emergency response and crisis intervention and in our approach to long-term prevention. These solutions are in line with the research, best practices, and expert opinions on public safety; they are not only more just but also, more effective. 

First, the HEART program is an incredible City of Durham intervention that works to limit armed interactions in public safety responses; I’m extremely supportive of its expansion. As we do so,

our goal should not be to reinvent the wheel, but rather, to work in coalition with the city to implement the program across the county—including in our schools. In addition, every part of our county services can learn from the HEART program and its compassionate, efficient approach. One thing that sets the Community Safety Department apart is its intention and rigorous culture of care—which should be the gold standard for every single one of our county agencies. We ought to spread that mindset as systematically as possible. 

In addition to harm reduction, we must implement prevention models to curb addiction and other ongoing mental health crises. Pushing for a deeper understanding of the social determinants of health is key to combating so many of the issues here in Durham County, including but not limited to the opioid epidemic, the loneliness crisis, and intimate partner violence. Part of governing under that framework means understanding the way systemic issues like housing segregation, food access, disinvestment, and violence warp our physical and mental health and susceptibility to overprescription. These inequities go back much further than the mid-1990’s when opioids were first introduced, extending all the way back to chattel slavery and Jim Crow. 

9) Economic inequality rose significantly in Durham County over the past decade. How can county commissioners address this problem and ensure that the county’s prosperity is more equitable going forward? 

The single most critical issue facing all of Durham County is economic inequity. The entrenched inequities growing every day in our county contribute to almost all aspects of an individual’s life from birth—including, but not limited to: the educational achievement gap, lack of access to housing, unequal health outcomes, and wage disparities. If I’m lucky enough to be reelected, I will continue to marshal every tool at my disposal to address said inequities. That starts with continuing to fight for a true living wage of $23 an hour for all county employees, setting the standard for a pay rate across Durham County that actually matches the rising cost of living. But it certainly doesn’t end there. It also includes fighting for universal pre-K, affordable housing, and union recognition across sectors to confront the downstream consequences of economic stratification. County policy impacts every part of our residents’ lives, and we have the power to enhance equality and justice at every step. 

10) Are there any issues not included in this questionnaire that you would like to address? 

Since I was first elected in 2020, my husband and I have been blessed with the birth of our daughter Aaliyah. It was a difficult journey after years of fertility challenges, and I could not be more grateful to finally bring her into the world and raise her here in Durham County. And this year, as I just shared in this paper, we’re blessed to expand our family even further with a new baby, too. 

When I think about what it means to me to be a progressive county commissioner in NC, I think of my kids and their future. As a new mother, my commitment to progress in our state has only grown stronger. Looking at my daughter and my growing baby bump, I see the whole world—a  future where they can live free of stereotypes, discrimination, and structural oppression. I feel even more dedicated to preserving the strong, vibrant, diverse community that makes Durham what it is. And I am reminded of the great debt we owe to the next generation: we are just stewarding this community, trying to leave it better, more equal, and more connected than we found it.

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