Durham, NC: Urgent Action - Housing is a Right!
605 W. Chapel Hill Street, Durham, NC
Urgent! Defend the tent encampment at Chapel Hill St and I-147 in #Durham. We need bodies here ASAP to stop the evictions. Cops likely to come to evict residents. Housing is a right! #DefendDurham
Come out for a press conference and a rally to hear from residents at the encampment themselves.
Call and email NC DOT Secretary James Trogdon, tell him don’t evict the Durham tent encampment!
[email protected]
919-707-2800
STATEMENT FROM THE UNITED RESIDENTS OF THE CHAPEL HILL STREET TENT ENCAMPMENT
This is our home. We live here. The state is not using this land. All of us have lived here between 4 months and a year. We have a trusting, strong community of residents. We all support each other in various ways in feeding ourselves and staying safe.
Last Friday, on June 1, we received a letter from Captain Reitz notifying us that we would all be evicted within 7 days. We have nowhere to go. The shelters are full and all have waiting lists. Many of us do not feel safe staying in a shelter. We feel safe living in our tents and wish to remain here until we find more permanent free housing.
There is already a housing and eviction crisis in Durham. Do not add us to that tragic list.
We are demanding the following of the state Department of Transportation and the City of Durham:
1. Do not evict us until we have found permanent, free housing.
2. Do not cut down the trees in our encampment. The trees keep us shaded from the elements, especially the hot sun during the summer, plus they provide us an important environmental buffer from the highway.
3. Provide us with a few trash receptacles and provide us weekly collection service, like all other residencies in Durham, so that we can keep our encampment clean.
4. Transition the old Durham Police headquarters, just across the street from our encampment, into affordable housing and provide us all free housing in the building.
