Seniors at two downtown Durham apartment buildings have unionized and are demanding safer living conditions, cleaner common areas, and a management team that actually responds.
Ashton Place Apartments opened in 2024 on Jackson Street, adjacent to the Durham Transit Station, with 51 affordable units for seniors earning at or below 60% of the area median income. Residents were drawn by the location, the amenities, and the promise of community. Shelva Washington, 72, moved in two years ago. "When I first came, it was affordable, and it was beautiful," she said. "I got to know my neighbors, and we are really like a community."
That feeling hasn't gone away. The maintenance has. Washington described peeling paint around door frames, flooring coming up, no dedicated maintenance person, and no cleaning service. Other residents named safety failures with the building's Butterfly system, which is supposed to let residents buzz guests in from their phones.
Frustrated by complaints that went nowhere, residents formed Ashton Seniors in Action and joined with Willard Street United, a tenant group at the neighboring Willard Street Apartments, to push back together. In January, a majority of households at both buildings signed a petition for recognition as a union under the North Carolina Tenants Union, a legally recognized 501(c)(3) organization.
The combined effort targets both the landlord, DHIC, and the property management company, Community Management Corp. Both have agreed to a Meet & Confer with the unions. A binding resolution? Not yet guaranteed. But the meeting itself is a concession residents at Ashton Place and Willard Street never got when they complained alone.