Unused funds for HIV housing in Durham total $1.3 million

DURHAM, N.C. —  A Spectrum News 1 investigation reveals that over a million dollars meant to help provide housing to people with HIV and AIDS in Durham remain unspent, leaving local organizations and advocates frustrated and confused.

Since 2020, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, has sent the city anywhere from half a million to a million dollars a year under the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS, or HOPWA.

These grants aim to help people with HIV and AIDS, ensuring they have secure, affordable housing, which researchers say boosts survival rates.

However, records show funds from five years ago are still waiting to be used, and there’s currently no plan for how to use over $1.3 million received in the past two years. 

CAARE-The Healing Center in Durham, once a bustling hub for community care, now sits mostly quiet.

Executive Director Carolyn Hinton, who co-founded the organization, said the need for housing and health support hasn’t gone away, but funding delays have made it harder to keep up.

“We want to continue to help build our community up,” Hinton said. “Our community consists of everyone, not just people with healthy lives.”

CAARE and several other nonprofits applied for HOPWA funding from the city earlier this year. They waited for months before hearing back.

When responses finally came in September, every request was rejected.

A city memo obtained by Spectrum News 1 stated the applications were denied because the organizations “lacked sufficient organizational capacity to effectively administer their proposed programs.”

“It has made a significant difference in my ability to have clients,” Hinton said. “Fees paid for housing and to locate… housing in the community.”

According to 2024 data from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, almost 1,900 people in Durham County are living with HIV, and more than 700 residents have been diagnosed with AIDS at some point.

It makes Durham County the fifth-highest in North Carolina for total HIV and AIDS cases.

Duke infectious disease fellow Dr. Hayley Cunningham, who helps leads a Coalition to End HIV in Durham, spoke up at the Oct. 23 city council meeting, urging the council to move the process along. The deadlines for using HOPWA money are approaching rapidly, unless HUD extends them, which is possible.

The city acknowledges that it’s struggled to distribute the money efficiently. Officials cited a department reorganization, staff turnover, and what they called “notification delays.”

Durham has requested extensions from HUD to spend leftover funds from 2020 through 2022, but HUD returned the request asking for more information, which the city says it’s now preparing. Those extensions, they said, are held up by the government shutdown.

As organizations await clarity, advocates said the delays come with a high cost. 

“My question to the city of Durham is, why are you creating a barrier for people to have a decent quality of life?” Hinton asked.

The community and health leaders keep pushing city officials for info and to guarantee the money helps the intended recipients.

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