 deserve to live in that manner, not at any time. So you can make a difference. So in conclusion, I'd say all the things that has been mentioned here, I'm familiar with, and Old North Durham stands with MacDougal Terrace, and all that we know stands behind them that could not be here. Thank you for your time, and God bless you. Thank you, Mr. Everett. And now we'll hear from Mr. Roger Fowler. And while Mr. Fowler is speaking, if I could ask the next group of people to please come over to my right, that would be Mamie Beal, Cynthia Harris, Deborah Friedman, Jamaka Webb, and Tracy Briscoe. Mr. Fowler, welcome. You have two minutes. Yes. I just want to thank you for the opportunity to come here and speak. I'm here to support the Medougal Terrace community, as well as the Walker and Cosart family. My name is Roger Fowler. I am a resident of Durham, 5012 Millstone Drive. And I am the pastor of the deceased child that was just buried a few months ago. And I want to look at you, this council, look at you face to face and let you know that you have the power to do something about this. As I sat back in these chairs here, and I looked at the expression on your faces as individuals, when these residents gathered up here and made their case, some of you looked in awe and couldn't believe that these residents were living like this. And some of you gave the expression of you couldn't wait for this night to be over with. But I want to let you know, you have the power to do something about this. Now, as I go to the Walker and Cosart family's house to counsel and to give comfort, I see a deteriorating apartment. And I want to let you know that you really need to realize the magnitude of neglect that's happening to this house, this community. I am a resident of Medougal Terrace back in the 70s. And as a kid, we played with those open gas bars. We played basketball with tennis balls, throwing them behind those bars. We grabbed hold to them, and we shook them. And we put them to the test. But I want you all to understand that when I went to console the Cosart family after eulogizing this baby right here, I hold his obituary in my hand that doesn't have an obituary on it because he hadn't even lived a life. Couldn't talk about who he was. I just want you to know that those same appliances that were there in the 70s are here at 2,000. And I want you to know that's the neglect of not the people, but the city. Thank you, Mr. Fowler. Ms. Beale, Ms. Mamie Beale. Oh, OK. Thank you, Ms. Beale. Ms. Harris. Hi, my name is Cynthia Harris. I am a Durham resident. I'm a community organizer with We Dream in Black, and I'm also a lead doula for my May Inc. These residents deserve to have safe living conditions. Safe living conditions are a human right. All of their concerns need to be addressed immediately. The conditions are inhumane. I stand in solidarity with Matt Duel residents and all DHA residents. This is personal for me because I have family and friends who live in DHA. I've seen the issues of mold. Refrigerator's not working, which causes families to lose food. I've also seen holes in their ceilings. Matt Duel residents have also created a list of demands for the city and DHA to adhere to, and I will read them now. Rights of acquired enjoyment. Residents have complaints of maintenance entering in their apartments without notifications. Residents have complaints of maintenance smoking in their units. Residents have complaints of being treated unfairly, spoken to unfairly, insulted and treated, rudely by maintenance. Residents request proper documentation and process of maintenance requests. Financial. The residents are requesting a reimbursement of rent for time for the evacuated from their premises. Residents request compensation for Ashley Kennedy for a time work, including overtime. Residents are requesting an official audit of rental accounts, fees assessed for damages, and late fees, dated back to 1994 to present day. Residents are being charged for damages already in units and normal wear and tear, considering the quality of the structure repairs in the age of housing. Transportation. Transportation is requested. Sign-up sheets for transportation while residents are relocated. Communication. A 1-800 number and daily communication are available at front desk of hotels. And motels for updates on housing, cash, and food cards to cover their expenses. Some residents do not have access to the internet and may not have cell phones. Repairs and pest control. Repairs for mold, leaks, and pest control including rodents and rats, roaches. Also, bed bugs. Some of the units have bed bugs in them. I've had several residents text me today and tell me and call me that they have not received their food cards for it today, as promised by DHA. That's the problem. They told them that they would be at the hotels today, and they would give them their food stipends for it today. They would be back today at 9 AM, and they were not there. So we need answers about that. I have residents that have not eaten today at all. Ms. Harris, I'm sure Mr. Scott will respond to that. OK, so I really want that answer because I have people blowing up my phone now while I'm in this meeting asking me where their meals going to come from tonight. Thank you, Ms. Harris. I have not eaten all day. That's a problem. You guys have eaten all day. I know y'all have. Y'all have had breakfast, lunch, and something I've already had dinner. That's a problem. I have mothers who have not fed their kids today. Thank you, Ms. Harris. Y'all need to fix it. Deborah Friedman. Deborah Friedman. Deborah Friedman. And I live at 1109 East Hardscrabble Drive in Hillsborough. Why do I always feel Durham government cares more about policies than they do about people? Maybe it's because a political pack and a city council play an outsized role in our community. Maybe because whole squads of people of color are being damaged by your social justice narcissism. Whole communities are devastated by beyond policing. And Jews are mortified. You were the ones who energized a lethal propaganda resulting in the death of Jews. Durham deserves better. How dare you presume to know what's best for our communities when you allow inhumane conditions in public housing? People you appointed are responsible for incompetence and negligence in Durham housing authority. Then there are the continued rumors about Parks and Recreations Department or city employees. How can a city government propped up by a political pack continue to wreak havoc on the lives of its citizens unabated? It must be stopped. It's time to call an outside auditor, auditors, national media, and the governor for help. When the enablers have enablers, it's time to call a state of emergency. Thank you, Ms. Freeman. Now we'll hear from Jamaica Webb. Jamaica Webb, sorry. Please give us your name and address, and you also have two minutes. My name is Jamaica Webb. I am a resident of Hoover Road, a former resident of Israel. I went through these same issues. The CEO and talk to his receptionist just to get my manager for my property to even call me back about mold coming out of my vets, growing on my leather furniture, and my kitchen table. This stuff is not new. And I feel like I'm being played when I have to sign a petition just to get a leak fixed in my cellar when maintenance comes in to change my filter, and they see the water leaking. They see the rust on my floor from a metal chair that I had in my living room. Where is the rust coming from? Because it's getting wet. These are not new issues. These buildings are over 50 years old, some of them close to 70 years old, and no maintenance has been done. So the funds that they're getting, where are they going? They're not maintenance in the buildings. And they'll tell us they don't have the funds to fix a leak. You have inadequate maintenance men if they can't come in and unstop my toilet, which when I lived in Edgemont and now living in Hoover Road is the same conditions. And I feel like I'm better than having to step down into that neighborhood. I feel like I should be in mixed income and working my way up to be able to move out and pay for it. But because of the way this city is in a gentrification, you can't afford to move out. If you move out, within a year you're going to lose your place because the minimum wage doesn't even allow you to live. It doesn't allow you to pay your bills. There's no way you can say that you don't have the funds when we see the money being spent. Nobody would be the CEO of Durham Housing Authority if they didn't have their salary. And I was treated unfairly by my property manager. She felt like, you're ghetto. This is all you deserve. And you shouldn't be complaining. You should just deal with it. And I'm tired of that. And I'm only upset because these people are going through it. But when I went through it, I had to call neighborhood services myself. I had to call them. I had to have that man come out and tell me everything that I knew was wrong with my apartment was accurate. So don't tell me you're doing all that you can when you've done nothing. I grew up in Hoover Road, and I'm back there now. And nothing has changed. It's the same apartment. Only thing is it's in a worse condition. And I didn't have that going on when I was five, six years old. Thank you, Ms. Webb. I'm sorry, Dave. I have to live in public housing. I'm going to ask now, are you Ms. Briscoe? Ms. Briscoe, come on up. As Ms. Briscoe comes up, could I also ask to come over to my right? Cynthia Fox, Rachel Cordero, Rafiq Zayedee, Minister Paul Scott, and Rachel Cordero, please. Ms. Briscoe. My name is Tracy Briscoe. I'm a Durham citizen. I live at 5,300 New Hall. And I want to just first honor you all. I've been watching you as a community rally together and make things happen. You are making it happen. Ashley, obviously Ashley is running the game. But as I'm on the Facebook page and looking at you, look out for one another and make sure your babies are going to get home from school to the right hotel. Let's put a name in your pocket so they can get to the right hotel because my kids wouldn't know how to get to the right place. I have four kids, six, four, two, and one. And I'm here because of my skin color tonight, because if I were in this scenario, I think my voice would be heard louder. And that's not right. And you all know that. I would not be in this situation. And that's not right. That's called systematic injustice. And leaving people like this in these situations, it's not going to fix the gap. This is making the gap worse. These are educated, well-being individuals that love their family. I visited a nine-month pregnant woman this morning who has a two-year-old and a three-year-old and a little dog in her hotel. Her two-year-old and three-year-old is throwing up, running 103 fever, while she's having contractions. No one is there. This is not OK. That is a lot of stress on a nine-month pregnant woman. It's got to change. If we want Durham to be what we represent ourself to be, this is Durham. Thank you, Ms. Breska. Welcome. Next, we'll have Cynthia Fox. Ms. Fox here. All right, then. Rachel Cordero. Ms. Cordero, welcome. You also have two minutes. Thank you. My name is Rachel Cordero. I'm a resident of Durham. I just want to know, what are the true answers and where's the accountability in all of this? You moved these residents out and told them they'd be gone from their homes for a week. You know good and well. You have far more than a week's worth of work to do in those apartments to make them safe for them to go home to. Where's the accountability? When the last three, four, I couldn't tell you how far back inspections from HUD have been failed in these homes. The last inspection, you failed with a 30 out of 100 possible score. You were cited over 800 health and safety concerns in a housing community that only has 360 units. You were cited 24 life-threatening issues on those properties. We filed the necessary paperwork to get the results of those inspections revealed. I'm calling on DHA to show complete transparency and release those results before they ask the residents to return home. They need to know which life-threatening conditions you knowingly exposed them to. We all deserve answers. These people need to know that their home is safe. Your home is safe when you go home. It's not for them. That's not fair. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Cordero. Mr. Zaidi, welcome. You also have two minutes. Thank you, sir. Good evening. My name is Rafiq Zaidi. I live at 807 South Duke Street, JJ Henderson. I'm a 75-year-old senior citizen, and we are going through some of the same problems at JJ Henderson all over DHA. One thing for sure, when you try to redevelop a land and steal a land from black people, you've got to put a black face on it. From Ben Carson all the way down to Anthony Scott, we know what we're dealing with. As I looked at this baby on the front row, I recall a grandmother coming to me Sunday. She said, Mr. Zaidi, my son called me from central prison. He has a baby in MacDougal. He wants you to tell the people. If you're not afraid, I said, hell no. You tell him, if my baby dies, head's going to roll. I said, now we've seen a mentoring session here tonight. Who's going to mentor that baby when she don't have a chance to exist? Answer that. A lot of questions have been asked. Will you live under those conditions? Hell no. You will not live under those conditions. And you know it. So why put my people under those conditions? You know that you need that land. You know that. And you'll get that land by any means necessary. If people have spoke, enough is enough. Anthony Scott, you going to clean these houses up? Oh, you is out of here, boy. You are out of here. You don't have enough power for these white people to stand down. We will run you out of this city. That's what I'm going to link with. Before we hear from Minister Scott, I'm going to ask the following people to also come over here to my right, Anthony McClendon, Victoria Peterson, and someone has put just their initial down. And period, Williams and Williams, if you could come over to my right as well. And did I also say Anthony McClendon? Yeah, we already spoke. OK, thank you. All right, Minister Scott, welcome. Thank you. Minister Paul Scott, PO Box 15123, Durham, North Carolina, founder of the Black Messiah Movement. You know, the scriptures teach us that what you do to the least of these, you do unto me. So the least of these being tonight are these babies and these children you see, the children who have passed. Those are the least of these. Now, I'm a little confused tonight. Maybe y'all, maybe I'm not too bright. Maybe y'all can help me out. These problems that McDougal and other areas are experiencing from what I'm hearing, they've been going on for years. You've already calculated that. But what you didn't calculate was us showing up tonight and calling you on. Now, I call it what they're doing in Durham is economic, ethnic cleansing. Now, what that means is they wipe you out and take the land. You don't believe they'll do it? Read this book. Knowledge is power. Buried in the waters by Elliot Jasper. Talked about how some areas in the United States, black folks just disappeared. They weren't there anymore. Now, for the past year, people have been talking about putting the guns down. I don't know where the violence is coming from. Nobody talked about the economic factors and how people were suffering. If I was living in these areas, I'd be mad too. So what are we going to do about it after tonight? After the cameras are gone, we got to stay together. We're one Durham tonight. One Durham. One Durham. So in my conclusion, the question will be, well, you don't live in McDougal. That's what they tell me. You don't live in McDougal, but tonight, I'm by Brother's Keeper. Thank you. Thank you, Minister Scott. Before Ms. Peterson speaks, I'm gonna ask the following people also to come over to my right. Jacqueline Wagstaff, Barbara Lofton, Tommy Hayes, Leonardo Williams, Kamaira Faizon, and Albert Avery. If you all could all come over here to my right. Ms. Peterson, welcome. You have two minutes. Thank you. Has Mr. Scott left the building? Is he still here? All right, Mr. Scott is still here? Mr. Scott, I told you this. I shared this with you the other day. You need to resign. You need to move on, Mr. Scott. You have blood on your hands. And Mr. Mayor, you may need to move on too, sir. Because I'm gonna tell you why. And I'm not trying to be rude, but I'm gonna tell you why. Some of us all last year talked about Meducataris needed to be included in that bond. And that $95 million bond. Plus the $42 million that the city is sitting on. You've done nothing. You've done nothing again. And black children have died. That's right. Whatever the reason, they died in these units. And it's not fair because you could have did something and you choose to do nothing. Yes, Pastor Milton, you've talked a little bit about it, but you didn't put anything together in writing to say we're gonna take $10 million and put it around in the various public housing, particularly Meducataris, is the oldest public housing unit in this state. The oldest, it's about 60, they're about 60, 65-year-old facility. No wonder they got water bugs and things are leaking. It's an old facility that they needed help. But you chose not to do it and that's what I don't understand. And now we're in a mess. We're in a crisis. And it's an embarrassment to the African-American community because you know why? People are listening, white and black. Oh, good grief. Those Negroes don't know what they're doing, but we did. We came down here and we told you what needed to be done. We tried to be nice and sweet. We didn't cuss. We didn't use any bad language. We talked to you. We pleaded with you and we begged you to help them to include Meducataris in that $95 million. And Mr. Stott should have also advocated for this community. He should have said, Mr. Mayor, I'm not gonna support this bond unless Meducataris was included. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And you didn't do that. Thank you. So the blood is on your hands and Mr. Stott, hack your bags. You've got to go. You cannot stay here any longer. Thank you, Ms. Peterson. You've got to go. Ms. Wagstaff, welcome. You have two minutes. Always a pleasure, Mr. Mayor. I just don't even have words tonight. Now I'm gonna give you the real deal. Let's start where it starts, right here. Like I told you, Sunday, I said you have a person that you appointed to the board. She sits right there. She looks nonchalant right now. But I've been to more meetings than she's been to and she praised herself on this, doing her campaigning. They pimped out Meducataris trotting through there, all doing the election. Y'all trotted through Meducataris like hoodwinking black folks, but they needed them votes. Right back in and half of y'all Nick Rose voted for them. I'm just gonna call a spade a spade. But what are they doing for you now? What are they doing for you now? I've been trotting in Meducataris since 1986. Fugot, Hoover Road, Oxford Mounder, I've been in them all. I be over in Meducataris so much when they pull up, they say you live here. I might as well, 51B. This is crazy. These problems, y'all have them living in a minimum security prison. The first time I walked over there, I said, why do you have to get permission to come in a neighborhood and deal with the people? And I didn't get permission. I started knocking on Ashley's door where she at, bothered her every day until I aggravated her out the house. Permission, that's what you get when you go visit people in prison. You have them living like prisoners. Go to the jail. That's where you find mold and contamination. Not in these homes. And y'all sitting here, I'm looking at your face, in fact, and I put you all on live. Cause I'd like to look at you over and over again, see how you don't care. And I know you don't care. Jillian, I got to say what I got to say. I wish I was your mama, I beat you to death right now. I swear I would, I beat you like a stepchild. Just because you need to know that these people are hurting. You have to feel this. I feel it every day. I've been doing triage all day. That's what we're doing triage right now. That we are taking care of those people in the hotel. I'm driving my van, taking food. I got a text message right now. I got to take some food to somebody out there, one of them, them extended stay. Thank you, Ms. Wackstaff. I can't take it. Y'all got to go. Y'all got to go. Recall is like a talk. Thank you, Ms. Wackstaff. Ms. Lofton, Ms. Barbara Lofton here. Tommy Hayes. Tommy Hayes. Tommy Hayes. Leonardo Williams. Mr. Williams, welcome. Please give us your name and address. You have two minutes. Leonardo Williams, 4029 Livingstone, and I live in a really nice neighborhood. Folks come together and we just happy all the time. And it wasn't until I was nosy and I went to Ashley's house. And I didn't know who she was. I just know I used to go to McDougal Terrace to pick my band students up when I was banded right there at Southern Durham. And it was when I was in our house and everybody said, that's Ashley, you need to go through her for anything you wanna help. And it was at that point in time where someone was having a panic attack outside. And they said, that's the mother of the child who passed. And when the young lady actually came back inside, someone called her on her phone and she had her own speaker and they said, girl, we haven't had food in like a day and a half, almost two days. Can somebody please get us something over here? And that's when tears struck in my eyes. And I had to take action. Now I know you all personally and you're good people, but your actions, what happens tonight and from here on will be judged. And that's up to you. I took action. I just called out in the community. And what I wanna say is it's really easy. I opened my restaurant up and opened my kitchen up. We had over 40 volunteers come together and most people came in and they said, I didn't know. We had 10 hotels. We had buffet lines in each hotel. And we had about 571 meals went out the door. So the job is really easy. The community is out here ready to work. We're just waiting on your leadership to tell us what to do. And someone said that they hadn't gotten food earlier. Just come let me know. All right, let us know. And we're here to help. We're here to make things happen, okay? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Williams. Ms. Faishan, welcome. Please give us your name and address. You also have two minutes. Certainly. My name is Camaria Fasen. I am a resident at 1303 South Austin Avenue, apartment B here in Durham, North Carolina. And I used to live on 45 East Lawson Street, apartment A for 14 years. So currently now I work at Lincoln Community Health Center. I'm a case manager there under social work with the Behavioral Health Department. So I know a lot about trauma. I've been traumatized. I understand what trauma means. I understand when residents come up here and talk about the same issues that I went through from the early 90s all the way up into the early 2000s. It's the same thing, black mold. It's the same black mold. It's the same things. And I was able, of course, to push through, and that's what I hoped for some of these kids, but I was lucky enough not to die. And that is pretty much what I'm writing on is that I didn't die, right? So I absolutely appreciate all of what you all do as public servants because I myself am a public servant. I also work for the Durham Crisis Response Center with domestic violence survivors, as we say, not victims. It's when you're already traumatized by your outside surroundings and it's very hard for me not to get emotional about this, you're not safe in your home with mold and you're not safe outside of your home with gunshots. I live right up the street from McDougal only two blocks away. Luckily, I stand on the shoulders of Miss Cynthia Brown and I also stand on the shoulders of Miss Cannell, an advocate, both of them, very prominent leaders in the community that have since passed. But if I did not have that type of influence in my life, I don't know where I would be, but I know one thing is that it's been 15 years and this cannot keep going and we need something more. And I'm a piece, I'm a product of what can be if you can live through that. So I would like for you all to take that into consideration for people who have made it. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Faisal. Mr. Avery, welcome. Please give us your name and address. You also have two minutes. Good evening. My name is Elbert Avery. My address is 113 Ashmont Lane, Durham, North Carolina. I am a city employee. I work in the Department of Community Development. I'm speaking as a result of just kind of dealing with the number of issues on my own in the past. I lost a nephew who was always very honest and frank. And I've been told by my managers within the city system sometimes I can be too frank. But I will say these things tonight and try to be within your time limit. And a lot of folks have said this isn't just a funding issue related to McDougal Terrace. It's an operational management issue. And at some level, somebody has to own the operational level inefficiencies because all this stuff didn't just jump off on Christmas day or that week. It's been there, it's inherent, and it's systemic. You know, somebody's made a calculated risk about leaving McDougal the way it was, all right? And they figured that, well, you know, the voiceless can't voice, but so much will spread and disperse the people who live in these housing authority properties. And then we can kind of, you know, kind of reallocate and disperse and have people spread out and we won't have this concentration. You said it in your state of the city that you needed to mix the mixed income would allow those who don't have as much to be able to have access. I think that's the way you wrote it. Two resources that they don't have because everybody around them is poor. And what I would say is if they do live in a mixed income area, what resources are you then going to provide them that you can't provide them now? The other thing that I would say is that, real quickly, is that this is a humanitarian crisis. This is like a natural disaster, except it's man-made. There's, you know, the calls for independent third parties, transparency and honesty. Because see, if you had just said to us and said, we've heard about this, we're trying to figure out what we should do about this then people wouldn't have quite the chip on their shoulder that they do this evening and what you've seen. I saw, Mr. Councilman, real quickly, I saw Council Middleton over the last couple of days of different meetings. And I would say commendations to him for at least being there, you know. Because nobody else is showing up. And one solution thing I would suggest though, is that, and I'm hoping I don't get fired in front of the city for saying what I'm saying is that we have a need to spend some CDBG money right now. You're all aware of that because we haven't met that timeliness test. Maybe we could approach HUD to say, well, is there a way we can use this money, bypass some of the hierarchy things that we have to do and apply it immediately to this situation here? You know, I'm not here just to try to chew on you, but I would also say maybe that's a suggestion that we need to look at as well. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. All right, we've heard from all of our speakers. And so let me just tell you how we're gonna proceed now. I'm gonna ask Mr. Scott to come back to the podium and to respond to anything that he would like to, any facts that he would like to add. I'm gonna also ask if council members have any questions of Mr. Scott, I think this would be the right time to ask them. And then after Mr. Scott has spoken and answered questions, then I'll ask our council members to make any statements they would like to make. But first I wanna thank all of you all for being here. I wanna thank you very much for all of the things that you've said, we take them very seriously. We know how important this is to our city, not only to you all, but to every one of us. And you'll be hearing more from all of us in a little while, but first let me ask Mr. Scott if he has anything else that he would like to add. I just wanted to add a couple of things. One, it was stated that the residents that's on our board is not a voting member. That's not true, the resident is a voting member, just like any other board member on our board. I just wanted to clarify that. And just to the residents, if you are encountering issues with my employees, then please contact my office so that I will know that employees are doing those things so that we can address that directly. A lot of what I would wanna share would sound like excuses. And I'm not interested in sounding like I have a bunch of excuses for you. Some of you have seen me around for the years that I've been here and you know, I think you have a better sense of who I am and what I'm trying to do within DHA. There is a financial issue and you're right, there is an issue with how our folks have been responding. And the financial issue is not quite in our hands, but how our employees respond is. And one of the things that we did, and some of you have met them, Mr. Foster has been hired recently as the new director of housing operations because of the things that you talked about and the kinds of changes that we know we have to make. And a couple of other things I'll just say, one, it was suggested that we have regular updates and I absolutely agree. It's one of the things I was gonna share with Ashley today to try to do it at least on a once a day basis to give an update on how we're progressing with this. And it was mentioned about the stipend cards. We have struggled mightily with getting our funding from SunTrust, the cards that we need, et cetera. And again, I'm not trying to make excuses, but we'll try to have those cards available first thing tomorrow morning. Let me put my head together with my folks since this evening and see what we can do. All right, we'll do that as soon as the meeting is over tonight. Thank you, Mr. Scott. I'm gonna now, Ms. Peterson, Ms. Peterson, please. Thank you. All right. I'm gonna ask council members at this point, if anyone that has any questions for Mr. Scott. Council member Austin. Yeah, I look forward to addressing the residents. I'll ask a few questions and then hand it over to my colleagues who I'm sure have a lot to ask. First, you mentioned daily updates. I did have a question about kind of communication. I guess, is there a way for, that sounds like a communication from your office to the residents, how do the residents reach you as it relates to this specific emergency? Like, is there a contact number, a contact name? I know Ashley is the point person for the residents, but kind of how, I would like to know that there's two-way communication, not one-way and unpredictably. Right. So Mr. Foster has been sort of the lead in all of this and I don't have the number off the top of my head, but I'll see if I can get that before we finish this evening. If we could, great. And I'd love for that to be shared tonight before we leave. Yes. And I had a question about the transportation support. Yes. That's the question I had kind of coming into the meeting, so I'm glad that you've thought about it. I guess just if you could share some more details with us about what the scope of that is and if there are ways that we can support that effort. We've made arrangements for the transportation service, so residents who need transportation can call that service and they can come out and transport people where they need to go. Okay, and are the, is it a free service? Yes, yes. Someone spoke fairly recently about trauma and it's been on my mind about the folks who have lost small children. Are there efforts from the county or from a private provider to provide bereavement support for the folks who just lost children in the last few months? So we've had meetings with the county DSS services to make efforts to get into and work with our resident, not only what you mentioned, but just in dealing with all of this, right? I mean, this is not easy for residents to get pulled up and put in hotels and don't have the convenience of home and those sorts of things. And so we're working with DSS and other county services to help support our residents in that. We're setting up kind of an emergency operation center at McDougal. I think we'll have it up and running by tomorrow. Okay, great, I think I'll take it back there. Thank you. Thank you, council member. Council member Caballero. Yeah, and I see council member Reese's hand. I just want to piggyback on a question from council member Alston thinking through the mental health support for some of these residents. And are we also coordinating with DPS for the students and DPS and other charter schools? I can see that thinking through the upheaval, the emotional upheaval for kids being moved hurriedly. Are we thinking about having conversations with the guidance counselors there and coordinating that as well? Yes, and as I said, we're working through DSS because they have the social service providers or the expertise to try to help us set those up and work through those folks as well. We have been in touch with the schools themselves, but we haven't made that connection with the other side. Could council also get the updates that you are sending residents? Sure. Daily. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Could I just mention we are doing a dorm alert for all of our residents so that we can send communication out to you all through alert dorm, I'm sorry, alert dorm that is going to be specific for McDougal-Tarris residents. And that's a text notification. Correct. I understand. I'm saying we're at least going to be able to do the alert dorm system to be able to contact McDougal-Tarris residents who have phones. Council member Reese. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, Mr. Scott. Thank you for being with us and for sharing the information that you have. I have some questions. I'm going to try to order them by most urgent to kind of some longer-term questions and I'll try to take up in an order amount of time because I know my colleagues are going to want to get in as well. I heard you mentioned in your opening remarks that there are 30 families at McDougal-Tarris who you would like to relocate to hotels but you're waiting on hotels. Is that what I heard you say? That's correct. Is it possible there are not 30 hotel rooms in the city of Durham right now that are vacant? How can that happen? Can you help me understand that? We have been contacting hotels and particularly we're trying to find extended stay hotels with kitchenettes and if we can't find those then we're going to whatever hotels we can get to try to get people in those hotels. Okay. All right. Can you talk about the process that you've been going through to get the sort of money cards or cash cards to the residents? How is that working? How is it breaking down? What can be done to help facilitate that? Because it's obviously a huge problem right now. Right. So it's SunTrust that we have as our bank and they've had to acquire the cards from different branches and what have you. So we've gotten the cards then we have to load the cards with cash based on family size and then get those distributed out. We were hoping to get loadable cards so we would just have one card and it would be it and then we can load it if we had however long it takes us to get folks back to their homes and they're not able to deliver those until Thursday. So what we're going to do is do cash cards again and so we've been assembling those cards so that we can then get those dispersed out to residents. I know there's some organizers that are going to want to talk to you right after we're done because their phones are blowing up by people who haven't gotten their cards haven't eaten yet. If some of them can meet with him and one of those folks is going to confide me after we can, okay. I'll stay as long as we need to stay to help those folks get something to eat. Is it accurate to say that DHA has told families that they will only be able to be required to relocate for a week and that their homes will be rendered safe and habitable during that time? No, what we said was that we will have people in hotels for at least a week but it's going to depend on what the results of the testing are. So however long it takes for us to get the CO issues both inspected and if there are issues with that repaired along with mold then that's how long we'll be housing people. How will residents know that their homes are safe to return to? So we're doing independent testing. We are, there's a testing company that we've hired. We've also reached out to Jim Groves with emergency management to also reach out to others so that we can get even more people to actually do the testing but none of the testing will be done by DHA employees. Okay, do you have any sense of how much money it will take to bring the units at McDougal Terrace into a habitable condition? I do not. And one of the reasons why if I could just follow up on that little bit is like we don't know what the issues are with respect to the things that we're trying to deal with right now. We don't even know what is causing those issues if we have them at this point. We have to do the inspections and determine is it a hot water heater or stove or heater and what particular issue there is with those things. So that will determine the length of time that it'll take for us to do the repairs. So your plan is to inspect every unit at McDougal Terrace in this very thorough way to put together a comprehensive kind of census of all the problems and then use that to roll up into some kind of cost estimate about what's gonna do, what's gonna cost to fix, is that right? So that's correct. But our priority is to take care of the issues of CO and mold. So those air quality issues is what we're focused on at this point in time. We're going to do larger, more comprehensive studies on what other issues that need to be repaired and get the resources to do that. So that's part of, as we've been reaching out to state, local and even federal to come up with the funds to do that. But it's been pointed out. I mean, we know these are issues that exist in all of our properties because of the age and as I talked about the funding, as we've talked about lots of times how we've not gotten all the funding we were actually formulated to get. So those are the things that we're actually knowing that's gonna cost a lot more to fix. And also why we think just doing repairs is not the real answer. It's building housing that is the quality that anybody would want to be in. Okay. I want to ask a quick question about carbon monoxide detectors. In a letter that we received from Chief Soldice of the Durham Fire Department, he indicated that his staff, when they participated in these multidisciplinary teams with NIS, EMS, DHA employees, and did, inspected every unit, did a spot inspection, I guess I would call it, of each unit in McDougal Terrace, testing for carbon monoxide and other problems. His letter indicated that there were a number of detectors that were very, very, very old. And I want to ask you, what is the standard that by which DHA monitors these carbon monoxide detectors? Is it the policy of DHA or the federal government? Does HUD require DHA to periodically conduct tests of those detectors to make sure that they're working correctly? Yeah, so to your first question, it wasn't the CO detectors that were old, it was the fire detectors. They were reaching, if I'm not mistaken, so they were reaching their 10-year life. 2009 is where we saw several of the fire detectors, which was really their 10-year life as ending in 2019. So we replaced those. I don't think it was old CO detectors, but I'll have to check on that to be sure. But we replaced or made sure there were batteries on all the smoke detectors, smoke slash fire detectors, and the CO detectors as we did those inspections over the first course of inspections we did in that four-day period. Excuse me. So that's the first part of the question. The second part of the question is how frequently are these carbon monoxide detectors monitored, tested to make sure they're working correctly? Is it practiced? Does the federal government require you to do it based on some period? Right. They are supposed to be tested at least annually. And the annual inspections that we do with those, they're called the REAC inspections, what people were referring to the last three years, those also are being tested by those inspectors when they go in as well. And can you tell us anything about whether or not failed carbon monoxide detectors in units at McDougal Terrace were part of McDougal Terrace's unusually low score as a result of those REAC? I'm sorry, repeat that again? The maintenance score, the property condition score that McDougal Terrace got in 2018 was that as a result of, at least in part, failed carbon monoxide detectors in those units. So when there are those extended, can't say the word, when they have the emergency health and safety issues, we are required to resolve those issues and send a report to HUD that we've in fact fixed that. So if there is something that comes up on those reports that are considered to be emergent health issues, health and safety issues, then we have to prepare that and let HUD know that those things have been repaired and show that we've done that. And were carbon monoxide detectors part of those problems in the 2018 inspection? I cannot answer that without going back and reviewing that report. I know that some of the issues that happen, sometimes the detectors get taken down and so we have to replace those, which is usually the issue that you would see when you look at the reports, it's like missing smoke detectors, missing fire detectors, missing CO detectors. I'll have some other remarks later, but those are the questions that have. Thank you, Council Member. Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Scott, could you tell us a little bit more about how the inspection that you're doing now is different from the one that happened a week ago because you inspected all of the units that we will terrace and now there's a company that's doing that again. Can you just tell us a little bit more about like how is that more comprehensive or what results do you think that you'll be able to get from that that you weren't able to get from the initial ones by DHA? Yes, when we did our initial inspections, first of all, the weather was very mild. So a lot of people had their doors open or their windows open and they were going in and out a lot, particularly as we started going through in teams of fire, EMS and DHA. So that essentially compromises the space. You cannot, you don't have a sort of controlled environment where you can turn on the heating system, turn on the stove, turn on the hot water so that the hot water heater kicks on and be able to accurately monitor if there's any CO2 emissions. So the part of what we're doing now by evacuating folks out is that we'll have a controlled environment where doors are not going in and out of and we can get an accurate testing of whether or not CO is actually being emitted from any of those equipment, that equipment or appliances. Thank you. So the ones that you found in your initial inspection, what was done to fix those problems? And what do you, like how, what's the cost of fixing a faulty stove or a faulty water heater? Does DHA have those resources to do that? Again, it's difficult to say what the cost is because it really depends on what the specific issue is. If it's a, like in some cases we found there were pilot lights that were out. So that's an easy fix. Or I know that one, there was a exhaust for the hot water heater that had been broken. And so that had to be fixed. All the things that we found during those days, it was reported that those things were actually able to be fixed on site. So the bigger issues, such as the heater system not functioning properly is something that would take a little longer to do, obviously. In some cases, we've had to replace a couple of those heaters. And so that's a different kind of timeframe and a different kind of repair issue. Okay, thank you. Another thing that came up in the report that we saw was folks using their stoves to heat their homes. Were you able to figure out what's wrong with the heating systems in those apartments where people were using their stoves so that the heating systems could be used instead? In terms of reports that I got or even some that I saw when I was going through with the inspections as well, it was a range of things from the heater. Because those heaters do not have thermostats, you turn them on, that's it. So the heat is coming out and it becomes very uncomfortably warm in the units, particularly on the second floor. So, and these are anecdotal stories. I'm not saying this is anything that's happening across every unit. And so folks would turn on a heater so that they wouldn't have to have that uncomfortably warm heat. Two things such as the heaters themselves aren't working or they're faulty. And so people would turn on their stoves to heat their units because the heating system was inadequate. So are those all, I mean, have those been fixed? Those are being either fixed or worked on. Not all of them were able to be fixed because the issues were bigger than the time or the equipment that we had to take care of those. But those are being either worked on or repaired. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor Pro Tem. Mr. Mayor. Council Member Freyman, any questions? Sure. Okay. Council Member Freyman, go ahead. Thank you. Thank you, so some of my council colleagues have already asked some of the questions that I would have asked, but I do want to go into a little bit deeper into Council Member Reese's comments around the CO2 detectors and noting that I want to be specific. The property score that you're talking about, it includes the CO2, like I'm lost. And then I also want to note, are these reports shared with your board? And are those board reports, like is the board reviewing these reports? Like how is the accountability on this side of not just you, but your entire board set up? Because I'm feeling like there's more to this than not. And the fact that the confidence level of the residents is stemming from someplace, I can't put my finger on, but if the level of transparency has been in question and you set up a meeting or so with FIRE, EMS, and I'm assuming NIS and county, and no one from the community, I don't think that builds confidence. And so in this process, if you're not including your board or residents from the community, from the residents council board, and you're not including folks, kind of as an independent perspective in the process from the start, it kind of reinforces that kind of unsettling transparency issue. And so noting that there was a report that included CO2, number missing, number there, number working kind of things or things that at the board level, you would kind of catch. And so I'm wondering if that's included, has the board reviewed it? And if the board reviewed it, were there any steps that were taken out of that? So again, once we get those reports about those immediate health and safety issues, we are required to repair those immediately. And so it's the broader things that are in that report that aren't health and safety related, that take longer to do, but those immediate health and safety issues, we have to repair those right away. And send that to HUD that these things have in fact been repaired. So those immediate things are in a document? They're in the React document itself, it's the React thing that comes out, it's a public document actually, so it's not something that, it's just something anybody can see. And is it readily available for residents to take a look at? Well, it's online, so I can make sure that we can make, as many of those reports as we can access from the system, the HUD system, as possible to anybody who wants to see them, residents or otherwise. And then also along the lines of, I'm sorry, the conversations you were having with Congressman Butterfield and Price and the supports that they could possibly provide recognizing that these issues are across the country and all the aging housing that's been falling apart since they've been built. Is there any sense from your perspective in how much or what type of support you will be getting from the federal government? We have reached out to the local field office to ask what resources are available to deal with this exigent situation. And in my conversation with Congressman Price, he said they're looking at these emergency funds that are available. I think he said there's approximately $30 million that's available for FY20, fiscal year 20. And obviously that's for the entire country. So we don't know how much of that would actually be available to us. And they're also looking to see if there's other funding in previous years that might be available for that. So that's what his staff, and based on our conversation today, that's what his staff has already been investigating and looking into. And then lastly, so I'm recognizing that you have a volunteer from the community as a resident, providing I think it was 233 hours in the last week or so. Is that normal? Do you normally rely on residents to do volunteer work to get that type of resource covered? So I'm acknowledging that this is an extenuating circumstance, so maybe there needs to be some type of compensation set up to cover this situation because it is a change of life. I'll reserve the rest of my comments for the... Thank you. Councilman Middleton, any questions? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I do have a question. Thank all of you firstly for being here tonight. Mr. Scott, I want to talk a little bit about what a leadership and accountability looks like now that we have crossed this threshold. Part of the reason, well, the reason why we're talking about redeveloping low income households in Durham to mixed income is not just because it philosophically makes sense. It's also because we know that these complexes, it would cost less to rebuild something new than to repair them. We know that. You took extraordinary action and I commend you for it because based upon what I've seen and what I've heard, I believe that there is a clear and present danger to the lives of our children. I think it's imminent and I think that the actions you took support that. So my question, my concern is now that we have crossed this threshold. I want to very pointedly assure people, listen, the most basic and sacred responsibility that a government has to its people is to keep them safe and to keep them alive. Everything else is gravy. Everything else is icing. That is the most, that's a sacred responsibility we have. And I heard a resident say that when she went back to her apartment serendipitously, she saw a worker in there to collect something and he was painting over mold. We have to assure that now that we've taken this step and it's out there, the world sees it, that we absolutely do not allow babies and families and children back into these homes if mold has been painted over. We can't do that. And listen, we've heard some tough stuff tonight, trust me. I think you're a humane leader. You came highly commended and you've seen the work that we're talking about transforming some of these communities before. So I want to on public record say that I am absolutely prepared to ask this council to take extraordinary steps and to spend some serious money because I think we are facing a clear and present danger. I think this is an emergency situation. I think your actions underscore the fact that this is an emergency situation. And whatever HUD does, whatever the state does, whatever anybody else does, I believe with everything in me that this council needs to be prepared to act in a substantive way. And it's not unprecedented. We took up tire mulch, rubber tire mulch out of a park and put down wood chips on the suspicion that it might be harmful to our children. Well, the science is in our mold. Science is in. And no leader in this city can countenance the thought of anybody going back into an apartment where mold has been painted over. So whoever this company is and whatever the cost is, I want you brother to assure us that you will come to us and you will let us know. And these folks that are in the hotel now, I think morally we cannot allow them back. And if we know that there's more, and I'm not saying you do, I'm saying we as a government, we as leaders, now that we have de facto declared this state of emergency, cannot, cannot allow those babies to go back in there and things have just been glossed over and painted over. We have now crossed the threshold. And whatever it costs to bring, and I think councilor Reece alluded to this in his questions, whatever it costs to bring those apartments up to safety and to standard, tabletable standards, the alternative is to pretend that we don't know about the problem and let those babies and families back in there. And I cannot countenance that. And I don't think any leader in this city certainly on this podium can countenance that. So I need for you to assure us that this company, when this company brings back whatever the price tag is, whatever the prognosis is, whatever the situation is for these apartments that we will be transparent, we will let folk know. And whatever it takes to make sure that we do not knowingly send babies back into these conditions, we're just gonna have to work it out because we have crossed the threshold. Now we have declared the state of emergency de facto. And once we've done that, we can't go back and pretend that everything is okay. And I know that it's not, McDougal Terrace gets a lot of attention, but these other housing complexes we know are in need. And we've known it for a long time. And that's why we've talked about redeveloping because we know it's gonna cost more. It would cost more to fix everything than to build something new. So here we are, it's out and we know it. But since we are at this particular situation, I guess my question is, I just want you to assure this council and assure the people of this city that we will not knowingly send folk back into those living conditions. And I'm also gonna not just put you out there. I intend on asking this council, whenever that price tag comes, to be prepared to do something significant and that will convey to the people of this city that we are serious about protecting the lives of our people. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Mr. Scott, hang on a second. I also have some questions, I'm sorry. I think that Mr., I think council member Middleton wants an answer to the question of... I'm sorry, I don't know if I was clear. I said yes, sir. Oh, I didn't hear you. Okay, thank you. I can assure you that that will be the minimum of what we will do. And again, that's why we've made some staff changes already. And to hear what that young lady said is there's no excuses for that. And so we're gonna go in and make sure that we get this right. One of the reasons why I took this action, and it was tough to do in terms of saying, let's uproot all these folks and move them out of their homes with virtually no notice. But I just felt based on what we saw Thursday night that we didn't have a choice. And again, I apologize for what we've put you all through so far. And we're trying to get it right. And council member Freeman, you make an excellent point in terms of the communication and having them be a part of that. That was something that we simply missed in our efforts to make sure we can try to figure it out and get it right and all of those things. And we definitely need to have the residents be a part of this solution. Thank you, Mr. Scott. Council member Caballero. Yeah, I had one quick question. What was the amount of funding that was set aside nationally? You said that number a little while ago. 30 million or emergency kinds of repairs. Yes. Thank you. There any further questions at this point? Any further questions of Mr. Scott? Just one, I know that you mentioned that there's a new person that's the point person who's been around for three weeks, Mr. Foster. Mr. Foster. Mr. Foster. I just wanted to, I'm sorry, I wrote it in. So just noting that I really want to say first, I do, there's just so much emotionally, I cannot handle with this situation. And I really want to thank you all for being here. I want to thank you for stepping up to do what needed to be done. And so just noting like my criticism is not out of disregard for the work that you do and that your staff does. I do appreciate what your staff has been doing. I know that over the last five years there's been tremendous changes with the Durham Housing Authority. And I know because I've had the fight with Hoover Road and with Franklin Village and with Eastway Elms and with the, like with Calvary Place. There have been so many issues and you've always stepped up to address them. This overarching issue that we're facing with all of our housing authority locations across the country is not something we're going to solve overnight. I want to be clear that I don't want to put that out there like this is going to go away. It's not going to be something we snap our fingers in. We have a half, you know, $2 billion to actually address it. But I do want to make sure that we're walking with our residents in the community and making sure that they understand that we understand that they're living in these conditions and it's not acceptable. But we're going to do the best that we can to make sure that they're brought up to an acceptable level of standard of living. I want to make sure that this person, Mr. Foster, understands who the community is. And I'm mindful that if you've hired them that that wouldn't likely be the case. But I want to make sure that I hear that from the residents. And so I would really like to make sure that there's some feedback or some type of interaction where residents in the community actually meet and talk with this person who is now their point person for these repairs. Noting that this fear is out there. Yeah, I will just say, unfortunately, he has had a lot of time in our community and meeting a lot of our residents already. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Council Member. Mr. Scott, thank you very much. And now we'll have some time for some Council Member's comments. Thank you very much. Okay, colleagues who would like to get a start at Council Member Reis. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First of all, I want to thank the folks that came out tonight. Someone made a comment that it looked like we wanted to be anywhere else but here. We couldn't wait for the meeting to leave. I can't speak for my colleagues, but I will tell you that for myself, there's nowhere else I would rather be than in this room tonight. Listening to some of our most committed neighbors talk to us about what is a life or death situation in their community. And it is not my job as a member of this Council to say that this is someone else's problem, to say that we're not supposed to be the person that you're talking to about how to fix this. It's my job as an elected official member of this Council to do something about it. And I just want to say how much I appreciated Council Member Middleton's call to action on this and to say that I agree that we will do whatever we need to do to make this right. And I also want to be mindful of what Council Member Freeman just said, that we are not going to stamp our fingers and raise $2 billion tomorrow. That isn't to say that there's nothing we can do very quickly. And so I look forward to the housing authority letting us know what the price tag is. And I suspect at that time we will be working with our state and federal partners to figure out how to pay that bill because there's nothing more important to our community, to me in this community, than making sure that our most vulnerable neighbors are taken care of. I also can't let tonight go without saying thank you to Ashley Kennedy, who in addition to being a leader in this community is a good friend to me and has been kind to my family. And I will just say that we, there are children that live in Mededugal Terrace who are very dear to me. And I will do everything in my power to make this right in the weeks, months and years to come because that's what it's gonna take. The other thing I wanted to say about this is I think there are short meaning in the long-term problems that we're gonna have to have a menu of solutions to fix. The very short term is the very human cost of relocating hundreds of families out of their homes into apartments, some of which don't have kitchenettes and can't have kitchenettes because I'm not sure there's enough capacity in hotels with kitchenettes to accommodate all these people that can't live in their homes. And so we're seeing Ashley coordinate much of that human response on the ground out of 51B Ridgeway. And I wanna find out if there's a way to relieve the burden on her and the volunteer organizers who are doing that in a way that makes sense. I think medium term, we have to grapple with what it's going to cost to make these homes habitable for the people that live there. And that may not seem like a medium term solution and medium term problem, but it really is because that's gonna be a huge lift financially that we're gonna need help with. And so figuring out how to make that work is sort of a meeting term solution. But the longer term solutions here are daunting as I haven't heard anyone say this yet tonight, but I will say that nationwide, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, essentially the federal government has underfunded maintenance in our housing authority communities nationwide by upwards of $50 billion with a B. Durham has its fair share of that and probably then some because we have some of the oldest public housing communities in the country. And so grappling with that national problem as it manifests here in Durham is a huge challenge and will require not just action by the people on this council, by elected bodies across the city, by the people in this room and residents across Durham, but it's gonna take change at the national level to create new priorities about how we prevent these problems from happening in the future because I don't know if you guys know this but we just had a bond referendum like a month and a half ago where we promised to give the housing authority a lot of money to rebuild certain of our communities. And once they're done and are gleaming palaces for our residents to move into, the housing authority is gonna have to take care of those things, those communities. And if we don't change the long term funding strategy from Washington about how the maintenance is funded in housing authority communities across the country, including in Durham, then that money that we're gonna spend to rebuild these communities to build amazing new housing for our lowest income neighbors is not gonna be kept up and we'll just have to be in the same place we are again in 15 or 20 years. And so we can't, we don't have our hands on the levers of every solution to that problem, but as the mayor's fond of saying what we can do, we must do. And that starts now with solving the human problems of folks who have been relocated and finding out how we're gonna pay to make McDougal Terrace right again. And we talk a lot about accountability and responsibility and I know Director Scott feels a lot of that in this room tonight and that's a good thing. But I also feel that tonight. As I said, it's not my job to tell you that it's someone else's responsibility, it's my job to try to figure out how we're gonna fix it. And that is what I'm gonna try to do in the time to come. So thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Rees. I think we'll just go straight on down the line here. Council Member Freeman. I first and foremost wanna thank you all for being here this evening again and again and again. This is an issue that has plagued my neighbors and myself and so many others for so long. And the way that you guys have shown up, there was someone who spoke very plainly about how the danger's inside your home and then the danger's outside of your home. I sat through, last year was probably the hardest year I've had in working in this community and I've never been so disgusted and frustrated and I just can't fathom how there's so many people in this community I love that I care about, that care about my community and there are so many who could care less. And I'm very clear. I speak very plainly about the issues that plague us as black people, plague people brown, yellow, anything other than white regularly and I have not found a solution worthy of getting behind in a way that you have brought tonight and I am just thankful because you're giving me the life that I needed. I took a break last year after Christmas and I have to tell you, I checked out. I had to take a break, like personally I just had to and I wanna apologize for not being open and honest about it because it just hurt. That bond referendum in my heart of hearts, I wanted to support it, but I knew good and well that none of the work that needed to go into it to make sure that the residents were at the center of the solution was being done and I could not put my stamp on it to say that I could support it because I knew coming out of it, we weren't gonna address it in a way that I knew was equitable. I'm not even gonna go down this road with the police and the shootings and everything else, but these issues are all tied together and the fact that you all could come together and figure out how to be here and make us be present and make us here at 10 o'clock for a 10 minute meeting because that's what it was scheduled to be, a consent agenda of three items for these last few hours speaks volume to your power and I want you to own that every day. I sit here at your pleasure and anytime that you are not happy with what I am doing, you should say it. Anytime you are unhappy with what is happening, you should say it. I just want you to be present and ready to work. It's not gonna be a me thing. It's not gonna be a counsel thing. If you leave it to us, we will screw it up. You have to be in the room, you have to be involved and you have to say it plain and clear, but you also have to be ready to hear the feedback and be ready to understand like, this is not gonna be something that gets fixed tomorrow, but if we work together and continue to press forward, black, brown, white, yellow, green, purple, whatever, we all are human beings in this community and we should all be treated as such and if there is anyone that is not, I fully expect to be called on it. I fully expect for it to be called out. I fully expect all of those things just as you do and I hold the responsibility sitting on this council to serve you as residents, not as voters, as residents in this community who expect to be served, when my elder, Victoria Peterson, stands up and says this $42 million sitting in our reserve account, the weight that that carries for me and the balancing that I have to do, I need you to trust more than anything that I'm gonna try my best to look out for the interests of our entire community. I also wanna make sure that I'm very clear in that I'm in this fight. This is not every day of the week, knowing that this has been the case since I started working with Eastern Children's Initiative at Hoover Road in 2013, I can't in my heart of hearts come to any of your houses. I mean, I just can't, I cannot. I've seen the bubbles, I've seen the mold, I've seen the district pair and my hands are tied without you. I just can't state it enough, I need you here. Beyond that, I do know that this call for action is not just here in Durham, it is about a whole national attention that has to be called. I know that Antonio Jones mentioned, this is our Flint, Michigan, this is our Katrina and it really is and how we come together and how we all find purpose and serve in one another is gonna be what determines our future. So I'm hopeful tonight, I am very uplifted and I feel renewed in this fight. I checked out and I'm back. I apologize to those of you who have not seen me at the meetings, I am usually there and I will be there. I am hopeful that this will not be a long drawn out situation with the CO and all of that but the mold and repairs part is something that's gonna be a little bit more long term and we're gonna have to figure out how to address it and I do appreciate the executive director using priority and not just making it all case equal because that is equitable and recognizing that there are people with children under the age of two who are more susceptible and there are people who are over 65 who are more susceptible to that CO and oxygen. I think we need to do the same thing on the mold and repairs as well and I would bring it down to 55, not just and I would raise the age to five because those are all formative years of brain development. I will say that there are a lot of resources in this community. We need to make sure that they all rally around us. I know that for the education of partnership for the advancement of children's and health, Peach is the resource I used in my own home to get lead abatement done and watching that process, I can tell you that this is not, it's not gonna be an easy fix. You've got to watch like a hawk to make sure that the steps are taken to make sure that your home is safe and returning and then also keeping it up, like keeping it safe and so I will be saying that I will, I would like to make sure that I'm present at every Durham Housing Authority meeting so that I can see these reports because I haven't in the past two years but I know that that's not gonna be possible and so I'm gonna be relying on more of you and if we all take turns I know that we can all get this done so. Thank you council member Mayor Pro-Champ. Thank you Mr. Mayor. First I just wanna thank everyone for coming out tonight, especially the residents from McDougal Terrace who are here in the middle of a very stressful period of displacement. You all didn't have to be here and you chose to be here and we appreciate you coming and being in the space with us and making sure that we understand what you all have experienced over the last couple of days. I wanna thank Ashley for all of the incredible work that she's been doing in the community and for always answering my texts even when you're in the middle of a crisis I really appreciate you keeping us informed as well as the folks in your community about what's going on. I've been really impressed by the advocacy of community members both in and outside of McDougal Terrace who have come together to really support neighbors in this crisis from folks at Dwellies to other organizations in the community, all the donors who have given money and volunteers who have come out and prepped food to step in when there weren't resources available. I think it's a real testament to the power of community advocacy in our city that this was all brought together to support people when they needed it and that we have been able to that the community has been able to meet some of the needs in McDougal Terrace in a very proactive way. So I think everyone who's been involved in that effort and of course the folks who are here tonight. We have a lot of work to do. I wanna make sure that folks know that this council is committed to supporting the housing authority moving forward. Every request that the housing authority has made for funding support from this council has been approved. I know that that is not, some of the folks who spoke tonight had concerns about us giving more money to the housing authority with the bond and with other, the purchase of Fayette Place, for example, because of issues of how that money has been managed. I think though that it's important that we continue to give money to the housing authority and to support the housing authority if we want these kinds of problems to get fixed. I don't know how we fix them other than by supporting the housing authority. So I'm committed to continuing to do that. I think the rest of the council is committed to doing that as well. I also think it's important based on some experiences that I've had with organizing and housing issues in Durham. I was part of a group of folks who worked with residents in Lincoln apartments before they were removed from that building several years ago. And very similar issues were present there. Issues of mold, lots of plumbing problems, roof leaking, and it was determined by the organization because they couldn't get the support to do the repairs that they needed, that the community was gonna be emptied and people were gonna have to find new places to live. We don't want that to happen in McGoogle Terrace or in any of Durham's public housing communities. We want to continue, we want to make sure that the housing that we have available now continues to be available. We wanna make it better rather than, we want to provide the resources to make it better. And by not providing resources, I don't think we'll be able to do that. Again, I wanna, as my council colleagues have mentioned, this is part of a much bigger problem. And I think that we are, if we can get some funding from the federal government or from the state to fix, to help with the problem, that that would be fabulous. We have, we are in the middle of a 40 year disinvestment in public housing in this country. And there is not an easy way for any community to manage that, Durham included. But there are a lot of resources in this community. There are a lot of resources that we can access. And I think that we will be able to access those resources moving forward. So thank you all again for being here tonight and for making sure that we understand what's happening in McGoogle Terrace and in other public housing communities in Durham. We appreciate your voices and your advocacy. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor Pro-Tan. Council Member Alston. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First to any residents who are still here who may be watching or listening, I wanna be clear that you shouldn't have to live like this. And as a leader in this community, I wanna say that I'm sorry and I feel a deep amount of sorrow for the families and loved ones of the children whose lives were lost. That kind of loss of life is devastating beyond words. And I say that as a parent. There are a number of things about the situation that have been devastating and concerning. The biggest of which is the immediate threats to the physical safety and health of our residents in McGoogle Terrace and in our other housing authority properties. Also, with respect to this recent evacuation, while very necessary, I'm concerned about the additional housing instability that the situation has the potential to cause for our residents. I'm concerned about the impact of this process on the school performance of our students. And on the wages of our residents whose lives have been significantly disturbed. And I'm also concerned that some of our residents will be left in even worse living conditions by virtue of this displacement. So I just wanted to note those. But most of all, and kind of in line with what my colleagues have mentioned, McGoogle Terrace and other housing authority properties are plagued with serious deferred maintenance and other public health issues. And that can't continue. Everyone in this community, in McGoogle Terrace and all of our housing authority properties deserves to feel safe and deserves transparency from all of your government agencies. So I am fully on board with the comments of my colleagues to use the resources that we have, including our funding resources to help deal with this problem. And so I'll look to guidance from the dorm housing authority from our administration on how to do it. But I'm confident that we need to do it. So thank you all for being here and for sharing tonight. Thank you, Council Member Alston. Council Member Caballero. Thank you, Mayor. Good evening. Thank you all so much for coming out tonight. Before we... Ms. Wackstaff, Mr. Scott, and so forth. Could we... Let's wait five minutes till the final comments have been made and then y'all can talk as much as you want. Thank you so much. Council Member Caballero. Yep. Good evening. Thank you so much for coming out. I want to thank my council member, Council Member Middleton. I know he's been out in your community substantially the last two days. I was out of town until Saturday, watching as the sun folded on social media many, many miles away. We have heard you loud and clear. I will say that if there is a look on my face while I'm in a meeting, it's often just to suppress the quiet rage that I have. Hearing your stories, our federal government and our state government have passed, as you've heard, the billion dollars of maintenance, passed the buck on the local governments. And quite frankly, I'd be fine with that responsibility and I'm playing very much in support of what my other colleagues have said on this dais, but they're not lowering your taxes. They're continuing to get their peace and then pass that on to us. And then that also impacts our communities who are struggling financially. And so that is the rage that I feel. I am perfectly willing to take on the responsibility. I think we actually will do a better job because the solutions would be local and we could really hear what residents need. So that is, if there's ever a look on my face, it's because I'm disengaging from my own emotions. So I apologize if that comes off as dismissive. I'm committed to whatever needs to happen. I have a lot of concerns. Black mold is not something that you can paint over. I think the CO issue is an easier issue to manage. I think it's an easier issue to solve for. The plumbing, the black mold, all of these things, that's ripping out walls. That's redoing that substantive repair. And so my concern for residents who are already in temporary housing is what happens when the reports come back and we realize that it's not something that can be returned. We don't know that yet, but that's the kind of my gut concern, my gut fears that. These are not solutions that will come easily. They're not solutions that will come quickly. But I think everyone on this diocese is very much committed to you all. A few weeks ago, several of us were at another gathering where folks were sharing their stories around their working conditions. And I left that room with the same emotion that we must take care of each other, that we cannot keep failing each other, that we all deserve to live in dignity, to live in safe housing, to have decent wages and a decent life. And as much as possible, I'm committed to doing that for you all and to working with you all. Thank you so much. Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Middleton. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and colleagues. And again, thank all of you so much for being here tonight. So before Paulie Mary and Barbara Jordan and Rosa Parks were who they were, they were basically Ashley Kennedy. And I wanna honor her work. Yeah, you can clap for that. You can clap for that. She did. I wanna honor her work. Mr. Mayor, earlier tonight, I read a resolution proclamation honoring Dr. King. And on the day Dr. King was assassinated, he was supposed to be in Durham. But he wasn't in Durham. You know why? Because he was with poor people, striking workers who were being violently pushed back on in Memphis, Tennessee. So he would have been in Durham on April 4th, but he was in Tennessee addressing some of the issues that we're talking about tonight. So it's almost poetic that we would honor Dr. King tonight and be here in this way talking about these issues. I said earlier, and I'll just say again, our most sacred responsibility is to keep our people safe. The next time people in the hood say something's wrong, listen to them. Seems like I've spent a lot of time talking about what's going on outside of apartments and violence in this city. And turns out, as someone said earlier, we were just as in much danger inside as well. So inside and outside. So the next time folk from the hood say something's wrong or they need something, we should listen and take them seriously. We have folk that are no longer in their homes tonight because I think to his credit, Anthony Scott realized that this is not something to play with. He didn't move people out of their homes because he thought it was a good idea or was bored. He did it because these are real life-threatening issues that are before us. And no one should make any mistake about it. When I sat at the community meeting last week and listened to those mothers, there was one mother who had her baby in her arms and talked about the mode situation and her holding her baby. I realized that every once in a while you have situations that remind you why you ran for office. That remind you why you did this. That remind you why you said yes when folk asked you to run. This is that situation. This is one of those situations. This is bike lanes for me. This is tree canopy for me. This is climate change for me. And they're all important issues, but this is our babies, no one can speak for them or protect them except us. We all they got. So it starts here, it's gotta be unequivocal and it's gotta be every day and it's gotta be constant. So I thank my colleagues and I heard almost a person, all of us express our willingness to do what we need to do. And of course, we ain't got $2 billion. We do not have $2 billion, but we got something and we can put something on it. So we're awaiting what the feds, anti-up, what the state anti-ups, and anti-sup of what DHA is able to come up with. But I am absolutely committed and heartened to hear that we are prepared to act. This is what government is for. This is what it comes down to. There's nothing more important than this. There's nothing more important than this. And on this evening, when we've honored Dr. King, like he and his generation, now our generation is being faced with a challenge. And the question is, how shall we respond to it? And let us resolve to overwhelmingly respond and vanquish this challenge with overwhelming resources and the overwhelming values that define who we are. This is the time for Durham to prove who Durham is here and now. Thank all of you. Again, thank you, Ashley. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, colleagues. Happy New Year. God bless. Thank you, Council Member. Thank you, Council Member Middleton. I have some comments as well. And I first want to appreciate all my colleagues. And I don't think there was a single thing up here that was said that I don't agree with wholeheartedly and appreciate the unity of the council in supporting this community that has come to us tonight. I know that we have heard a lot of people have already recognized Ashley Kennedy for her work, but I want to add to that as well. I don't believe Ashley's in the room, but let me just say she is here. That her work didn't just begin with this. She has been doing this for a long time. And all of us who know McDougal know what she has been doing and it is amazing work now, but it has been amazing work. I also want to thank the folks that have volunteered. We have had a tremendous outpouring of folks making donations, bringing food by, helping deliver food, helping serve food, helping be opening their restaurants to people to do those things, bringing their grills out. And I am just amazed at that outpouring of volunteer support. It has been very moving. So this is an emergency and we are treating it as such. And I want to say that I completely endorse the action of Mr. Scott in relocating the residents out of McDougal until he felt utterly confident that those apartments are safe. That was a decision that I think was absolutely right, even though it's a very hard decision and it disrupted a lot of lives. But safety has got to be first as everyone here has said. Someone said that safe living conditions are a human right. That is absolutely true. Safe living conditions are a human right and we as a community have to guarantee those safe living conditions to everyone in McDougal Terrace as we do to everyone in our entire city. Carbon monoxide, gas leaks, mold, these are not acceptable. These are not acceptable. And all of you all who said that tonight are absolutely right. And that is why Mr. Scott acted. And again, I endorse that action. This is critically important to all of us. When we hear about babies dying, no matter what the cause is, it is crucially important that we respond with all of our might as a community. And to the people who have spoken tonight, to all the residents of McDougal Terrace, we hear you, we care very deeply. And we are determined to make sure that your housing is safe, sanitary and decent. We will be paying a lot of close attention to this in the short term, but we'll be also making sure that after this crisis has passed that we will be providing safe, sanitary and decent housing in McDougal Terrace until we can replace all of this housing, which has got to be the thing that happens. This housing is too old to be continually patched. So there are gonna be three phases here. The first is what we're in now, dealing with the relocation situation, getting people back into their homes safely. The second is making sure that all of these apartments are safe, decent housing for everyone to live in. And third, we're going to have to be redeveloping McDougal Terrace and replacing these buildings, which we've known, we've known that. I want to say something a little about housing authorities and city councils and city governments across this nation. What we have seen around this nation predominantly is city councils all across the nation have been pushing their housing authorities and their residents away. People have wanted to look the other way because these communities are often housing are most vulnerable and because they're often housing mostly people of color. And you see this all across the country, where cities are giving no resources to their housing authorities. And in Durham, I want to say that we are going and we have gone in the other direction. We have embraced our housing authority and its residents. We're supporting its work in the service of improving the lives of people who've lived there. And we have been spending in the last several years millions of dollars in city tax dollars to renovate Damar Court, to renovate Maureen Road, to renovate Laurel Oaks, to materially improve the lives of the people who live there. We're about to do the same at JJ Henderson and we are also with city dollars supporting for the first time in many years new affordable housing to be built by the housing authority on the JJ Henderson site under Mr. Scott's leadership. The city is putting millions of dollars in the last few years into Durham Housing Authority because we know we cannot let these conditions persist. And in addition, we know now that our housing bond will be redeveloping over the next few years. Liberty Apartments and Uldem Towers and Forest Hills Heights were committed to redeveloping all of the Durham Housing Authority communities in the next few years. There's a very simple reason that McDougal is not first on this list and that's because it's hard. It's hard. Some of these communities, well, let's put it like this. In order to redevelop a housing community like McDougal Terrace or any of our large housing authority communities, not only takes a lot of city money, but it also takes a lot of private capital. The city money has to attract that private capital for this redevelopment to occur. And at McDougal Terrace at this time, that's very hard. It's the opposite of the fact that people wanna go in there and steal the land. It is that it's hard to attract private development, private investment there now. And so what we're doing with the Housing Authority's leadership is doing this in a way that we think that we can best redevelop all the Durham Housing Authority communities. And McDougal Terrace is definitely on that list and this will be done in a few years. But between now and then, we have to make sure that everyone is living in safe, sanitary and decent conditions in McDougal Terrace. That is a moral obligation of all of us on City Council and of our entire community. I also want to say that Housing Authority Director Anthony Scott has my full confidence. He is a superb leader. He made the right decision, a difficult decision about this to keep everyone safe. He is working within a severely under-resourced system or a public housing system, as people on the dias have said, has been severely under-resourced by our federal government for many years. And that's why we as a city have had to step in to help redevelop these communities. But I have full confidence in Mr. Scott in his ability to get this done and to do what he has started doing in the last couple of years, which is to redevelop our Housing Authority community so people can live in decent conditions. It has been mentioned that we should be reaching out to HUD and to our members of Congress. I just want to make clear that we have. I've spoken to Congressman Butterfield. Mr. Scott has spoken to Congressman Butterfield as well as to Congressman Price. The Housing Authority has been in constant communication with HUD and we have asked our Congressman, Congressman Price, to do so as well, which he is doing. So that work is definitely happening. And I want to just finally say that it's been said, if, as my colleagues have said, if the Housing Authority doesn't have the money to do this job and needs the support of the city, we are certainly ready to hear that proposal as we have been for all the Durham Housing Authority proposals that have come to us in recent years to do this redevelopment. And we will certainly be waiting for that as well if it comes now. So again, I want to thank all of you all for being here tonight. It's a very difficult time for us, for our whole community, because it's a difficult time for those of you who live in McDougal Terrace. You have our full support and you can hold us accountable for that. So I appreciate very much everyone being here and I'm going to now adjourn this meeting at 10.36. Thank you.