Story by Emily Chambliss, video by Erik Haynes, photo (in original article) by Madeline Nguyen
On a warm September evening in Durham, N.C., a crowd gathered under the shadow of the Gothic spires of Duke University’s campus. Community organizers, educators and residents filled a small church hall, sharing a simmering frustration. Their voices echoed the same question:
What could Durham do with $50 million?
Fifty million dollars that the Duke Respect Durham initiative, a coalition calling on the university to give more money to the city it calls home, believes Duke owes the city each year.
As the second-largest employer in North Carolina with a $11.6 billion endowment and over $4 billion in properties, Duke University owns 11 percent of the land in Durham County, the campaign said. The university has long been a symbol of Durham’s economic resurgence. But for many Durham residents, Duke’s financial contributions to the city have failed to keep pace with the university’s massive profits — and its outsized impact on the local community.
“We want Duke to be a partner in Durham, but that means entering into a Democratic relationship, where there are civic processes to speak back to Duke and hold Duke accountable for the ways they say they’re spending their money,” Kevin Georgas, local pastor and Duke Divinity School alum, said.
Duke University and Duke Health are 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofits, and are not required to pay taxes on non-commercial properties. While Duke contributes to the local economy in many ways — through jobs, purchasing from local businesses, and philanthropy — Duke Respect Durham asserts that the lack of direct contributions to the city’s budget leaves a gap that could otherwise be filled.
The campaign estimates Duke would owe the city $50 million each year if taxed. In 2022, the university reported paying $3.7 million in property taxes. Duke Respect Durham aims to push the university into a more democratic, collaborative relationship with the city, calling on Duke to make voluntary payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs) to contribute its fair share.
PILOTs are voluntary payments made by private, tax-exempt nonprofits as a substitute for paying property taxes. Yale, Johns Hopkins and Cornell universities are among several universities that have chosen to make annual PILOTs to their local communities. Duke, the campaign argues, should do the same.
“They are exempt from paying this large thing which every other resident in Durham, every business in Durham, needs to pay,” Samantha Heller, Cornell alumna and Durham resident, said. “It’s sort of like an unfair system, especially considering that Duke has vast amounts of wealth.”
In a Monday email to UNC Media Hub, Adam Klein, associate vice president for economic development at Duke, said the university shares in the future of Durham and its challenges.
Duke pays nearly $2.5 billion in wages to more than 35,000 Durham residents. Klein said these residents make purchases and pay taxes that generate $8.9 billion in sales for Durham County, on top of $233 million spent with Durham-based businesses and $10.1 million contributed to Durham-based nonprofits by the university in 2023.
“Duke’s spending with Durham-based companies and investments in non-profits is one of, if not the largest, of any private Durham entities. And we’re not done,” Klein wrote. “We are launching a new economic inclusion effort focused on deepening Duke’s impact as an employer and purchaser of goods and services in Durham.”
Duke Respect Durham criticizes the university for contributing to the city “on their own terms.” Residents engage in improving the community while also paying taxes.
“It’s all on Duke’s terms,” Mark Gutay, a Durham native, said. “It’s not about helping Durham directly. It’s about helping Duke. And then maybe it’s like a side effect. Some people in Durham get a benefit, A good example is they’ve really nicely manicured their campus and make it open to everybody. But since we don’t have good public transit, only people within like five blocks can get there.”
Durham residents have long struggled with poverty. 12.6 percent of the city’s population lives below the poverty line, above the national average. Disinvestment in education and health, such as teacher shortages and a lack of healthcare access, exacerbate economic and racial inequalities. The campaign calls this path unsustainable, and states it will continue as long as Duke maintains an “undemocratic” relationship with Durham.
So what could Durham do with $50 million?
Funding for affordable housing, public transportation and schools were some of ideas shouted out by community members at the September kickoff event.
Duke plays a pivotal role in Durham’s development. As the city expands and living costs rise, long-time residents face a significant shortage in affordable rental housing, gentrification displacing them from the very neighborhoods they help sustain.
PILOT funds could help provide more affordable housing by directly supporting the construction, rehabilitation or acquisition of new affordable housing units, providing rental assistance to low-income households and encouraging developers to build more affordable units.
“The housing market in Durham has made it such that it’s really, really difficult for people who work at institutions like Duke, Durham Public Schools and who take care of our city, to actually live in the city,” Georgas said. “I would hope to see some action around housing justice.”
Klein said Duke has a long track record of supporting affordable housing projects across the city. The university banks $22 million with local community development financial institutions that lend to affordable housing developers. He said Duke has contributed to the new Willard Street housing development downtown, and donated $1 million to the Durham Housing Authority. The housing authority used these funds to receive an additional $40 million Choice Neighborhood grant from the federal government, aimed at redeveloping distressed housing.
“We are proud of this work and are working closely with public sector and non-profit partners to support the creation of more units,” Klein wrote.
However for many of Durham’s low-income and working-class residents, it’s not just about affordability — it’s about the systemic inequities that have persisted for decades, Georgas said. The city’s history is one marked by disinvestment in Black neighborhoods, a legacy that has been compounded by gentrification and rising costs.
Duke’s wealth and influence have shaped Durham’s real estate, which Duke Respect Durham said often comes at the expense of marginalized communities. The university was heavily involved in the use of racially restrictive covenants in real estate practices during the Jim Crow era. These covenants, which prohibited Black and Brown families from purchasing property in certain parts of Durham, contributed to the city’s uneven development. This legacy continues to affect the community, particularly in historically Black neighborhoods such as Hayti, which was disrupted by the construction of Highway 147. The construction severed key economic and social connections in the area, stifling opportunities for Black families.
A proposed light rail project in Durham sparked hope among residents that it could help reconnect communities like Hayti to other parts of the city and Chapel Hill. Duke pulled its support for the project in 2019, effectively ending the project’s planning.
“I’ve looked at the bus schedule, and if I were to try to get to work at UNC, it would be like an hour and a half or something to get in with a bus,” Gutay said. “The light rail project probably would have made it relatively easy to get there.”
Klein declined to comment on the university’s decision to withhold its signature from the cooperative agreement.
“It’s really difficult to hold Duke accountable to what it says it’s doing with that money,” Georgas said. “And there are not public or civic forms of dialog for the people who are affected by Duke’s actions in the community to speak back to Duke and say, this is helpful, or you think this is helpful, but actually it’s not as helpful as you think it is.”
Durham’s public transportation system struggles with limited resources, inadequate coverage, and reliability issues. Many residents rely on it to get to jobs, schools and medical appointments. Commuters, particularly those in outlying areas, face challenges with proximity to bus stops, long wait times and frequent cancellations.
Transit funding from PILOTs can enhance bus routes, increase frequency and improve overall reliability, making public transportation a more viable option for residents. And as many lower-income areas lack adequate transit access, additional funding can better connect underserved residents to employment, education and healthcare opportunities.
Johns Hopkins University, which makes PILOTs to Baltimore, funds commuter assistance programs, transit subsidies and employee transit passes. It also contributed $150,000 to a transit-oriented redevelopment plan.
“Yale and Johns Hopkins have continued to do their philanthropic efforts. And those have continued even as they’ve made PILOT payments,” Georgas said. “ I think it just gives some proof of concept that this can be a good, healthy way for a powerful institution and a city to relate to each other.”
Durham community members lost access to free GoTriangle bus rides in June when the fare-free ridership program ran out of federal funding from the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. GoDurham buses are expected to remain free until summer 2025.
Regular fares are set at $2.50, with a discounted fare of $1.25 for users with disabilities. The city offers transit assistant passes to riders who qualify for Medicare, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits or have an annual household income below $35,000.
Duke offers free transit passes for students, faculty and other staff. A Duke NetID and Duke email address is required in order to qualify for the pass.
“I think this is where PILOT comes in. It would be an effective way for Duke to actually help Durham in a way that is not selfish,” Gutay said.
In 2024, Durham Public Schools announced a 30 percent bus driver shortage. A report released in April by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction revealed that DPS is losing teachers at a higher rate than other districts across the state.
The report did not specify the exact reasons for teachers leaving, but nearly half of the self-reported responses were categorized as “personal reasons.” National data from We Are Teachers indicates that many teachers are dissatisfied with their salaries, concerned about safety and experiencing burnout.
Earlier this year, DPS staff, teachers, and community members protested pay cuts for classified workers, like office staff and custodians, leading to Superintendent Pascal Mubenga’s resignation in February. The protests resulted in school closures and canceled bus routes throughout the month.
PILOT funds could be directed toward addressing some of the most pressing issues in the district, such as reducing class sizes, upgrading facilities and expanding educational programs, Gutay said. They could also help increase teacher salaries and provide professional development opportunities to retain talented educators, ultimately improving student outcomes.
Duke’s College Advising Corps works statewide to boost college enrollment among low-income, first-generation and underrepresented high school students in rural North Carolina. With advisers in 22 high schools serving 30,000 seniors, Klein said it has helped secure more than $35 million in scholarships and financial aid.
He also said Duke is partnering with Durham Tech and DPS to open a new high school designed to address shortages in nursing and other in-demand healthcare professions.
DPS teachers are not the only city employees facing what they deem to be inadequate wages. The lowest paid department in Durham, waste and sanitation workers, also contains the highest percentage of Black and Brown workers.
“We would like to see PILOT funds potentially be used to even out some of those inequities,” Georgas said. “Both in class and pay, but also the racial inequity as well.”
Advocates with Duke Respect Durham would also like to see an expansion of programs like HEART, an initiative aimed at providing mental health crisis aid from trained professionals rather than involving the police.
Heller said the campaign acknowledges the good Duke does for Durham, but wants to foster a democratic partnership that prioritizes transparency and citizen voices.
“Durham’s success will be determined partly by how Duke and Durham foster a strengthened partnership based not on transactions but on a shared vision. We’re eager to continue that work,” Klein wrote.
Duke Respect Durham has received support from 31 sponsor organizations, including the Duke Graduate Students Union and the Durham Workers Assembly. The campaign’s petition has gained nearly 1,000 signatures since its launch in September.
“It’s very much about the power relationship between Duke and Durham. Duke talks about wanting to be in partnership with Durham as an anchor institution. But a partnership requires transparency,” Georgas said. “It requires accountability. It requires dialogue, and it requires compromise.”
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