Community-Wealth City: Durham, North Carolina

Durham was once best known for its textile mills and its tobacco factories, including the “Bull Durham Tobacco and Company” and “Duke & Sons.” However, in the late 1980s Durham hit hard times, marked by the closure of Erwin Mills (Burlington Industries) in 1986 and, just one year later, of the American Tobacco factory.

Located in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill “Research Triangle” region of North Carolina—anchored by Duke University, the University of North Carolina, North Carolina Central University, and North Carolina State University in Raleigh, Durham has sought in recent years to reinvent itself as the “Medicine City. Today, the city houses roughly 300 medical and health-related companies and medical practices with a combined payroll that exceeds $1.5 billion annually.

The Research Triangle region is home to over 1.5 million. The city of Durham, like the rest of its surrounding region, has grown rapidly in recent years. The Census Bureau estimates that the city of Durham’s population as of 2005 was just shy of 205,000 — nearly 20,000 above the level of just five years before and more than 40 percent greater than in 1990. About 45 percent of the population is white, another 43 percent African American, 8.5 percent are Latino and the remainder are Asian or indigenous.

Despite its relatively small size, the city of Durham is home to a wide range of community wealth building institutions, which have played a leadership role, both locally and nationally, in community wealth building efforts.

An overview of community wealth building efforts follows:

Community Development Corporations

United Durham Inc. Community Development Corporation
www.udicdc.org
Founded in 1974 UDI has developed a wide range of projects, including affordable housing, employment skills and opportunities programs, and expanded opportunities to own, manage, and operate business enterprises. Among UDI’s more notable developments is a 91-acre industrial park that employs 300 and has an asset base of $30 million.

Community Development Financial Institutions

Self Help
www.self-help.org
Founded in 1980, Self-Help is a community development lender that has provided over $4.5 billion in financing to more than 50,000 homebuyers, small businesses, and nonprofits nationwide. Self-Help has also been a leading in efforts to limit predatory lending policies of check cashing outlets and other “fringe” banking services.

SJF Ventures
www.sjfund.com
SJF Ventures (originally known as the “Sustainable Job Fund”) is a community development venture capital fund. To date, SJF has invested $10.3 million in 18 companies, helping to retain 815 jobs and create an additional 702 jobs. Investment in a company is contingent on the company signing a covenant, with mutually agreed upon goals regarding job creation, facility location, and environmental impact.

Community Land Trusts

Durham Community Land Trust
www.dclt.org
Since its founding in 1987, the Durham Community Land Trust, located in Durham’s West End neighborhood, has developed over 100 units of permanently affordable housing (60 homes and 40 apartments), as well as developing community facilities and two commercial projects.

Community Wealth Building Policy Leaders

Center for Responsible Lending
www.responsiblelending.org
In 1999, Self-Help worked with a state coalition to help pass the North Carolina Predatory Lending Law, the first such law in the country. In 2002, Self-Help established the Center for Responsible Lending to build on initial successes and to include practices outside of mortgage lending, such as payday lending. Since then, CRL has conducted or commissioned landmark studies on predatory lending practices and the impact of state laws that protect borrowers.

Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina
www.cra-nc.org
The Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina’s mission is to promote and protect community wealth. The group advocates for change in the lending practices of financial institutions to promote wealth building for underserved communities and to end predatory lending practices that strip wealth. Committed to taking a creative approach in its advocacy mission, CRA-NC uses a combination of research, education, mobilization, media, litigation, regulatory challenges, legislative proposals, and stockholder actions to bring about change.

Land Loss Prevention Project
www.landloss.org
Over the past several years, the Durham-based Land Loss Prevention Project has been a leader in the environmental justice arena, helping preserve land ownership for women and minority (predominately African American) farm-owners across the state, including winning landmark civil rights victories against the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

North Carolina Institute of Minority Economic Development
www.ncimed.com
Based in Durham, NCIMED provides technical support for efforts statewide to develop women and minority-owned business. The Institute's working philosophy is that information and business development are critical to wealth creation and to building the asset base among low-wealth sectors of the population. NCIMED has also engaged in policy research and analysis on the state of and emergent trends in North Carolina's low-wealth and minority communities.

Cooperatives and Credit Unions

Durham Food Co-op
www.durhamfoodcoop.org
Established in 1971, the Durham Food Co-op has served for over 35 years as a natural foods cooperative for the Durham community, operating under the principle of “food for people, not for profit.” The co-op has sales of roughly $500,000 a year and publishes a weekly community newsletter, Food for Thought.

Generations Community Credit Union
www.gencomcu.org
Generations Community Credit Union is a 10,000-member plus credit union, which aims to strengthen Durham and the surrounding community by using our financial resources to improve the quality of life for all. In particular, Generations promotes homeownership, economic development and financial literacy. Generations works to reach the underserved members of our community who have traditionally lacked access to financial services.

Latino Community Credit Union
www.cooperativalatina.org
Founded in 2000, Latino Community Credit Union is the first fully bilingual credit union in the state of North Carolina. The credit union currently has grown to have about 42,000 members and more than $23 million in assets.

Foundations

Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation
www.mrbf.org
Although based in Winston-Salem, the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation also supports a number of community-based groups in Durham. In 2006, Foundation grants in Durham included a $300,000 grant to SJF Ventures to assist with its job creations and a $150,000 grant to the Latino Community Credit Union to support the credit union’s home ownership and home counseling programs.

Triangle Community Foundation
www.trianglecf.org
Triangle Community Foundation manages funds that range in size from $10,000 to $10,00; in sum, the foundation has nearly $110 million in asset. One new effort is its Community Grantmaking Program, which focuses on two themes: Civic Engagement and Youth Leadership and Development. The Foundation has committed $300,000 a year to support initiatives in these areas and also plans to provide additional funding to support Community Collaboration efforts that have a broad impact in the community.

Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation
www.zsr.org
Like the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, the Winston-Salem-based Z Smith Reynolds Foundation also supports a number of community-based groups in Durham. In 2005, foundation grants in Durham included a $100,000 grant to the Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina SJF and a $150,000 to a Duke University-community partnership program, in which the university works with local community development corporations (see University Partnerships, below).

Reclaiming the Commons

South Eastern Efforts Developing Sustainable Spaces (SEEDS), Inc.
www.seedsnc.org
Founded in 1994, SEEDS aims to create neighborhood commons, gathering places close to their places of residence, such as community gardens. SEEDS also helps establish other commons spaces such as a Durham Farmers’ Market and a space for emerging artists to display their works.

Social Enterprise

Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers
www.trosainc.com
Founded in 1994, TROSA, the largest drug rehabilitation program in the state, runs seven business enterprises, which include a moving company, a brick masonry company, a lawn care maintenance company, a catering business, a paint company, and a picture frame shop. A large part of the staffing comes from drug rehabilitation program residents. Part of TROSA’s two-year resident program requires that residents work in one of the businesses. As of 2002, business gross revenues were $2.25 million, covering over a third of the group’s $6 million budget.

University Partnerships

Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership
http://community.duke.edu
The Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership began in 1996 as a way to engage Duke University and its people in a structured partnership with the surrounding community. To date, Duke has helped to raise more than $12 million to invest in its partner neighborhoods. Duke’s work in this area includes support of affordable housing (including a $4 million investment in Self-Help), the operation of two community health centers, and after-school program for at-risk students in local public schools.

North Carolina Central University, Academic Community Service Learning Program
www.nccu.edu
North Carolina Central University, a historical black college in Durham, has been a leader in volunteer service, service-learning, and community partnerships. In 2004-2005, 5,302 NCCU students (more than two-thirds of the student body of 7,727) performed 154,653 hours of service and 811 students got instruction through service-learning courses. NCCU has also supported the work of the Eagle Village Community Development Corporation (EVCDC), which works on community wealth building efforts within a 2-mile radius area surrounding the campus.