CEO leaves Durham Housing Authority abruptly after more than 8 years. What we know.
The CEO of the Durham Housing Authority is leaving the agency after more than eight years, the agency announced.
Anthony Scott’s departure is a “mutual separation” resulting from a “collaborative process” with the affordable housing provider, according to a written statement.
“With several million dollars being invested in the preservation of our existing public housing communities, I look forward to DHA’s continued progress in enhancing these vital neighborhoods,” Scott said in the statement.
The agency’s director of real estate, Anthony Snell, will move into the CEO role on an interim basis starting Dec. 19.
The DHA did not provide a reason for Scott’s departure in its statement issued Wednesday.
Anthony Scott’s tenure as DHA CEO
Scott led the housing authority during a period of great change and great challenge.
In 2019, Durham voters approved a $95 million affordable housing bond — the largest in state history — with $59 million going to the housing authority for its Downtown and Neighborhood Plan, The News & Observer previously reported.
Funds were bookmarked for redeveloping multiple public housing sites into mixed-income, mixed-use developments, maintaining and developing more than 2,400 units in the heart of the city.
Among the challenges was the crisis that struck McDougald Terrace, Durham’s oldest and largest public housing complex, starting in 2019 with the death of a nearly 5-month-old infant. After two infant deaths, multiple failed federal inspections and several cases of residents with elevated carbon monoxide levels, hundreds of McDougald Terrace families were evacuated in January 2020.
In less than a month, the DHA spent more than $1 million on hotels, transportation, security, stipends for residents and initial inspections. Repairs were estimated to cost $4.3 million, The N&O reported in February 2020.
When residents began returning to McDougald Terrace in February 2020, some found that their homes had been broken into and belongings stolen while they were living in hotels.
Problems for the DHA have continued in more recent years.
Since 2023, the City of Durham has filed two lawsuits against the housing authority, alleging disability-based discrimination, which violates the city’s Fair Housing Ordinance, IndyWeek reported. The cases revolve around complaints made by two residents of McDougald Terrace and J.J. Henderson Senior Apartments.
In a separate incident, J.J. Henderson, which reopened in 2022 after a $31.2 million renovation project, lost power shortly before Christmas in 2023, according to 9th Street Journal. For days, the reporting stated, no one checked on the residents, who were without light, heat and functioning health equipment.
This story was originally published December 19, 2024 at 2:08 PM with the headline "CEO leaves Durham Housing Authority abruptly after more than 8 years. What we know.."
