Repairs, evacuations top $5 million as Durham public housing emergency lengthens
Repairs and other costs associated with evacuating the city’s largest public housing complex will cost over $5 million, and it could be mid-February before some residents return home, the Durham Housing Authority said Tuesday.
Speaking at a press briefing, Chief Executive officer Anthony Scott said DHA anticipates starting electrical upgrades at McDougald Terrace next week. The authority has blamed elevated carbon monoxide levels there on gas stoves, some of them from when the complex opened in the 1950s; gas furnaces and water heaters; and terra cotta ventilation pipes.
“We are optimistic that residents will be able to begin to move back at McDougald Terrace in the second or third week in February,” Scott said. He had previously said the authority expected to keep an estimated 280 families in local hotel rooms at least until Feb. 7.
About 38 units at McDougald Terrace remain occupied. Before the evacuation, announced Jan. 3, about 325 units were occupied.
Initial estimates indicate that repairs will cost $4.3 million, Scott said.
That spending will cover mechanical, electrical, plumbing, environmental issues and extermination of bugs and rodents at the 25-acre complex on Lawson Street.
Mechanical and plumbing work has begun.
The housing authority has already spent about $1.3 million on hotels, transportation, security, stipends for residents and initial inspections, Scott said. That does not include bills that have not yet been paid or work for which DHA has not been invoiced.
The authority also will not charge tenants rent for January and February, which will cost about $150,000.
The authority is also not pursuing any evictions across all of its properties for the month of January,
Scott said the housing authority is using a $7 million capital fund to cover some of the expenses and has asked federal officials for additional emergency funding.
“We’re optimistic that we will get that funding,” he said.
Meanwhile, the housing authority has completed inspections at all of its properties that have gas appliances: McDougald, Hoover Road, Club Boulevard, Edgemont Elms and Laurel Oaks and Cornwallis Road.
All stoves registering elevated levels of carbon monoxide will be replaced, Scott said.
After inspecting 346 units at McDougald Terrace, officials found 211 stoves, 38 furnaces and 35 hot water heaters emitting high levels of carbon monoxide, Scott has said.
This story was originally published January 28, 2020 at 4:30 PM.
