DURHAM, N.C. – Self-Help CU and Duke University are working with city officials on an initiative to redevelop Durham’s Southside neighborhood.
The program would market a “Duke-affinity neighborhood “in Southside and open subsidized home-buying opportunities to at least 10 low- and middle-income employees of Duke and the Duke University Health System.
Duke has already helped the Southside project by expanding a “loan commitment” from the university to the community development credit union. Duke had loaned the CDCU $4 million at 1% and its new deal with Self-Help now provides $8 million with no interest. Some of the new funds are earmarked for use by Self-Help in Southside for additional land banking and to refinance some of its existing equity.
The project targets the neighborhood adjacent to the city’s proposed Rolling Hills rental project, and is supposed to provide homeownership opportunities on land now controlled by Self-Help Credit Union.
Preliminary plans calls for Duke to give the employees a subsidy – most likely in the form of a no-interest, forgivable five-year loan that would supply money for a down payment. The credit union would work with the city and non-profits such as Habitat for Humanity to build houses in Southside. City officials hope to use federal grant money to underwrite about $65,000 of the construction cost of each house.
