It’s Wednesday, May 22.
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Good morning, readers.
The proposed 2024-25 budget that Durham city manager Wanda Page presented at Monday’s city council meeting recommended more than half a million dollars in funding for the city’s eviction diversion program. The program is largely what enabled five East Durham tenants I wrote about last week to secure representation from Legal Aid of North Carolina after landlord Leonzo Lynch sued them last year.
The program was launched in 2017. It received $200,000 in annual funding from the city during its first two years and $500,000 in annual funding during the past three years.
Durham resident Hannah Rogers advocated for increased funding to the program during the public comment session at Monday’s meeting, citing a statistic from a 2024 North Carolina Housing Coalition study that 46 percent of Durham tenants struggle to afford rent.
Legal Aid attorney Josh Stroud also spoke about the high need in Durham and said the speed with which eviction proceedings take place means the program requires robust staffing.
“These cases can be brought before the court with as little as two days’ notice,” Stroud said during the comment session. “Hearings can be fairly short: only about five minutes or so, before a magistrate who, in North Carolina, is not required to be an attorney. And if the tenant loses, they have a 10-day window to appeal or potentially be locked out of the home.”
The program’s stated goal is to “preserve tenancies that are sustainable and negotiate a solution to other situations that avoids an eviction judgment.”
Modeled after similar initiatives in Michigan, Durham’s program drew national attention soon after its launch—Politico called it a “tourniquet for the eviction crisis, a way to keep residents from falling farther behind as the city’s economy gathers speed”—and has seen consistently strong results since. According to Page’s proposed budget, of the 862 cases that Legal Aid closed in 2023, 386 resulted in tenancy being preserved and 567 resulted in tenants relocating without an eviction judgment.
Last week, Durham County manager Kimberly Sowell recommended the county provide its own $780,000 in funding for the program.
The city council will host a second public budget hearing on June 3. The county’s next budget hearing is May 28.
Have a good Wednesday.
—Lena
Durham
Op-Ed: Downtown Durham cannot afford to lose Durham School of the Arts, Pierce Freelon writes.
Durham’s Parks and Recreation Department will host a virtual public forum in partnership with state partners this evening to discuss lead in the city’s parks. Register here for the 6:30 p.m. forum.
Wake
Raleigh city manager Marchell Adams-David presented a $1.4 billion budget proposal to the city council at its meeting on Tuesday.
The Wake County Public Schools board voted 5-3 to raise school meal prices by 25 cents next academic year. It’s the third year in a row the district has increased school meal prices and is expected to generate an additional $1.1 million.
Orange
The North Carolina Court of Appeals dismissed charges against a man whose car was found with several guns inside it while he was visiting UNC Hospital in 2021.
North Carolina
North Carolinians Lara Trump and Michael Whatley are reshaping the national Republican party.
Today’s weather
Sunny with a high of 89 degrees.
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