Durham Housing Authority expands carbon monoxide inspections. Are more evacuations next?
Elected leaders came together Tuesday to support McDougald Terrace residents evacuated over carbon monoxide concerns, even as the city’s mayor held out a possibility that more residents could be displaced.
Asked about a WRAL report that found elevated carbon monoxide at the Durham Housing Authority’s Hoover Road complex, Mayor Steve Schewel said it is too early to say what the authority might do next. The complex, built in 1968, has 54 townhome apartments.
“No one can be living in unsafe conditions, no matter where they live,” Schewel said.
But pressed about the possibility that more residents might have to be evacuated, Schewel responded: “I don’t anticipate that, but it’s certainly a possibility. We don’t know know enough to know about that yet.”
On Tuesday afternoon, chief executive officer Anthony Scott said the housing authority has expanded its investigation into carbon monoxide leaking from aging gas appliances beyond the McDougald Terrace complex on Lawson Street. Inspections at Hoover Road are underway, he said.
‘Our community has failed these people’
Schewel spoke as city, county and school leaders came together to support the residents from the McDougald Terrace, the city’s oldest and largest public housing site with 360 apartments. The housing authority has spent $485,000 moving about 270 families to area hotels so far.
“For 40 years our community has failed these people,” Schewel said. “We are here to tell them they are not alone and we will do everything in our power to make this right.”
“Director Anthony Scott has my full support, and I believe the support of this assembled leadership,” Schewel said. Scott has led the renovation of several DHA properties and has plans to modernize others with nearly $60 million from the city’s 2019 affordable housing bond, money that will allow DHA to divert other funds to McDougald Terrace.
At a press briefing later Tuesday, Scott said after inspecting 346 units at McDougald Terrace, they had found 211 stoves, 38 furnaces and 35 hot water heaters emitting high levels of carbon monoxide.
“We are still evaluating what we should do about these,” particularly the venting issues with the hot water heaters and furnaces, Scott said.
Meanwhile, DHA has begun dispatching contracted inspectors to the other DHA properties with gas appliances, including not just Hoover Road but Oxford Manor, Laurel Oaks, Club Boulevard and Edgemont Elms. In one unit a stove was replaced right away, he said.
“If it becomes a situation where it is something that can’t be immediately dealt with, we would offer that person an opportunity to leave if they choose to,” Scott said.
He said he wasn’t aware of any additional individuals being moved to hotels.
‘Crisis in the community’
Wendy Jacobs, the chair of the Durham County Board of Commissioners, called the situation at McDougald Terrace a “terrible crisis in our community” and said the response will be a defining moment.
“When we have disasters it’s a terrible thing,” she said. “But we also need to look at the positives I have just been amazed at. ... This is what everybody is talking about. Everybody cares. This is what everyone in our community is talking about: What can they do to help?”
Jacobs also praised the work of Resident Council President Ashley Canady, who has been coordinating donations, and other residents.
“I have been blown away by the people of McDougald Terrace,” Jacobs said. “The strength and the leadership and the resilience of not just Ashley Canady, but there a lot of people in that community that have just risen up and taken control. This is the silver lining of this crisis.”
‘Don’t be afraid of us’
Kimberly Graves, vice president of the McDougald Terrace resident council, said she is skeptical that officials will be able to address all the issues considering the years of deteriorating conditions at the aging housing complex.
“I don’t see it,” Graves said.
If action had been taken sooner, the money now being used to pay for hotels, stipends and transportation could have been used to fix up McDougald Terrace or help families transition to a voucher program that would give people more choices of where to live, she said.
Canady challenged Durham leaders and others to remember her public housing neighbors once the television cameras are gone.
“I don’t want anyone to be judged anymore,” she said. “I just want them to be welcomed back to the community with open arms.”
“Don’t afraid of us,” she said. “Come to the Mac.”
This story was originally published January 14, 2020 at 12:54 PM.
