DURHAM, N.C. — Families living in Durham’s McDougald Terrace apartment complex may be forced to relocate after 2023, either temporarily or for good.

Durham Housing Authority (DHA) held a meeting Wednesday to discuss plans for the future of McDougald Terrace. On Thursday, DHA CEO Anthony Scott addressed residents and their concerns.

What You Need To Know

  • McDougald Terrace residents could be forced to relocate temporarily or permanently after 2023

  • DHA and HUD signed a recovery agreement last week that will require DHA to make significant changes over the next two years

  • Hundreds of McDougald Terrace families were displaced in 2020 following a carbon monoxide crisis

In 2020, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development designated DHA as a troubled performer based on the 2018 fiscal year. It's the most recent rating because of the pandemic.

DHA and HUD signed a recovery agreement last week that will require DHA to make significant changes over the next two years.

Those changes could mean repositioning McDougald Terrace and vacating it as public housing or it could mean a major renovation that would require DHA to help every resident relocate. DHA has until February 2023 to submit a repositioning plan to HUD.

Resident and McDougald Terrace President Ashley Canady has lived in McDougald since 2009. She says she got unconfirmed reports from friends and family yesterday McDougald terrace would be shutting down by the end of the year. She talked about receiving news that was scary and untrue.

"When you have families already struggling to make ends meet then they see something like this, and they have to be gone by the end of the year, which is not a true statement, can you imagine the hurt and pain people feel as soon as I walked in the house from a doctor's appointment, my daughter was like, ‘Mom are we about to be homeless?'" Canady said.

Just over 800 people live in McDougald Terrace. That's about 300 families.

It was just two years ago when hundreds of McDougald Terrace families were displaced during that carbon monoxide crisis. Scott says residents will be heavily involved in this recovery agreement process much like they were with the carbon monoxide crisis.