Renters were booted from these Durham units. Now their price tag is almost $1M more | Opinion
There are six buildings decomposing on North Buchanan Blvd. in Durham. There is trash in the yard and a hole in the front lawn. There are shards of broken glass and a hamper full of forgotten packages of adult diapers sitting in the walkway between the first and second duplex. The electrical meters have been removed from most of the buildings — but one is still there, still powering a single unit.
Janice Sanchez, 61, was one of the 12 renters who were told to vacate the property before New Year’s Eve 2021. She was one of the renters who organized and got in touch with the media about the struggle between new property owners and the residents who had been there for years, even decades in some cases.
A year and a half later, she’s the only one still there. She invited me into her living room earlier this week, where a large painting of Christ’s crucifixion greets you from across the doorway.
“I’m the last one because I kept fighting for everybody,” she told me. “I was the one who was fighting for everybody, I was the one that was standing up for everybody, so I wanted to be the last one to make sure everybody got out, got somewhere to stay. So now it’s my turn.”
What she didn’t know, until I told her, was that the six properties were once again up for sale as of Feb. 18. The six lots are listed for $450,000 each, but must be bought altogether for a combined $2.7 million. That’s $900,000 more than what the six properties were bought for in Dec 2021.
“It is crazy,” she told me. “It’s so crazy. I mean, it just shows me that they all about money. It’s self-gain. They don’t care about people.”
For what it’s worth, Sanchez no longer pays rent at the former Braswell Apartments. Reformation Asset Management, the property group for the buildings, took her to court a few months ago just to try and get her out. She says it’s the only time she’s had contact with the property managers.
In the next month or so, she plans to move out — she’s currently looking for a new apartment, but it’s hard to find something within her range. She’s also had multiple heart attacks, including one just a few weeks ago.
Sanchez still keeps in touch with her old neighbors, who have told her their rents are around $1,500 now versus the $900 they paid for the Braswell homes. She has been keeping an eye on one former tenant in particular, Scott, whose mother lived in the apartment across from hers for decades. Scott’s mother passed away in the time since their December 2021 press conference.
I asked Charles Bulthuis, the property manager and owner of Reformation Asset Management, what he thinks of all of this.
“I know that a serious discussion needs to be held on the topic of Affordable housing, and I recognize that the loss of our lower income residents are largely represented by members of the African American community,” Bulthuis told me in an email. “I love living in Durham, and I love the diversity we have enjoyed as a community. I personally do not wish to see this aspect of our community disappear. We will not get to that goal by attempting to strip away individual property rights that are not only key points of law in our constitution, but so interwoven in the fabric of our society that we have aptly associated the ability of the private ownership of real estate by all Citizens as part of The American Dream.”
Bulthuis is the messenger in all of this, hired by the building’s current owners to handle the first and second sales. He is not the one who will make a profit selling these homes. Bulthuis himself grew up housing insecure — and although he and I have differences of opinion on how to solve the housing crisis, he has done nothing illegal. The owners have done nothing illegal. This is just how it is.
That’s what I’m told, at least. I have been told countless times, as a concerned resident and a journalist, that the problem is bigger than me, than city council, and even bigger than the North Carolina General Assembly — although both governing bodies have some power over zoning, property construction and the housing voucher program.
As a young, white, middle-class person who moved to Durham in the last five years, I know that whatever is built on North Buchanan will likely be designed for my demographic. It’s a great location, close to Duke’s East Campus and downtown Durham.
But a housing market that prioritizes my needs and my money over a woman on disability, a woman who has taken care of everyone else — a woman who is my neighbor — is not a system I like living in. It isn’t just flawed; it is failing.
This story was originally published February 23, 2023 at 10:31 AM.
