Sip Daily Sar Hrri
In an area as affluent as Chapel Hill, some forget that there exists another side to
the town —a side that is not wealthy, but is rich in its sense
Bottom l HILL
Landfill neighbors share plight,
continue to battle for change
BY ROB NELSON
CITY EDITOR
AND MEEGANP. SMITH
STAFF WRITER
Some nights Marvin McPherson puts
up a gate in front of his driveway, not to
protect his property from burglars but to
stop trash from piling up in front of the
place he calls home.
“At night some people come around
here when the landfill is closed and
decide to drop off their trash in front of
my house,” he said.
“They don’t care.”
But for
McPherson and
the many others
who live in the area
surrounding the
Orange County
Regional Landfill,
apathy isn’t an
option.
The operation of
the landfill and the
impact it has had
“At night some people come
around here when the landfill
is closed and decide to drop
off their trash in front of my
house. They don’t care.”
KARAN MCPHERSON
Landfill area resident
on residents has been an ongoing issue
since the site opened in 1972. The land
fill is maintained by Chapel Hill,
Carrboro, Hillsborough and Orange
County.
In recent years the battle has intensi
noiisg piisii®
Below are the locations-for all 13 public
housing areas in Chapel HifL Over 900
people currently live in public housing ■■
units while another 300 are on waiting wj*
lists. Residents said the town had
improved the housing in recent years.
Complex Name Number of Unite Type of Unite
1 Craig • Gommina 40 family, elderly and single adult housing
2 Unsay Street . 9 family housing
3 North Columbia Street 11 family, elderly and single adult housing
4 Trinity Court 40 family and single adult housing
5 South Estes Drive 44 family housing
S South Soboraon Street 15 all elderly
7 Pritchard Pork 15 family housing
8 Airport Gardens 26 family housing
S Colony Wood# Wilt 30 family housing
10 Eastwood 32 family and single adult housing
11 Cakhweil/Church Street 20 elderly and disabled housing
12 Oakwood 30 family and single adult housing
13 Rainbow Heights 24 family housing
POOR
FROM PAGE 1
less people moving in and out makes
even an estimated guess futile, but Inter-
Faith Council for Social Service
Executive Director Chris Moran said the
number was high.
The Inter-Faith Council Community
House shelters between 500 and 600
men, women and children each year,
Moran said. However, many other
homeless people don’t take refuge in the
shelter.
Moran said he thought Chapel Hill’s
problem with the homeless was rooted
in a growing division and separation
between the rich and the poor.
“Because there are lots of wealthy
people here, those at the bottom tend to
be invisible,” he said.
However invisible the homeless might
seem, the Chapel Hill Police
Department sees some of them often.
Police Spokeswoman Jane Cousins said
officers had made 45 arrests since Jan. 1
in which the home address of the
offender was reported as 100 West
Rosemary Street, the address of the IFC
shelter. However, not everyone arrested
tells the truth, Cousins said.
She said there was really no way to
know how many homeless people were
charged with crimes. “Some say no
fied as residents who have endured liv
ing in the area have pushed harder to
make their issue public and to get local
government bodies to respond.
Many residents are currently fighting
for the passage of a 14-point compensa
tion package to provide services to those
residents who have lived in the area for
so many years. One of the key points of
the package is the extension of water
and sewer lines to the area.
But residents championing this cause
said they have been frustrated by what
they perceive as a lack of expediency on
the part of govern
ment officials in
granting their
requests.
Many of the
landfill neighbors
said they believed
action had been
slow because the
area was primarily
inhabited by low
income residents.
“Urban renew
al has passed this
area by,” said Robert Campbell, presi
dent of the Rogers Road Community
Development Committee. The develop
ment committee is made up of Rogers
Road residents and works to improve
the living conditions in the landfill area.
address, some lie and some say 100 W.
Rosemary Street,” she said.
Most of those who listed the shelter’s
address committed minor crimes,
Cousins said. An injury occurred in only
one of the 45 crimes, and most of the
arrests were for trespassing or violations
of city ordinances such as public urina
tion or open container.
“They’re not what is as
major crimes,” she said.
But whether the crimes are minor or
not, area residents and businessmen still
say a problem exists. They complain
particularly about panhandling by the
homeless.
Robert Humphreys, director of the
Downtown Commission, said store
owners and shoppers had complained to
him about being asked for money.
Unless panhandlers break the law by
being too aggressive or being intoxicat
ed, nothing can be done, he said. But
when the law is broken, the police are
called.
“We wouldn’t want the right to make
someone move on just because we didn’t
like what they’re doing, but if they cross
the line we have to do something about
it,” Humphreys said.
As for McCall and Drew, life has
been looking up lately. The two will be
moving at the end of the month to
South Carolina, where McCall has
“Most people out here are low-income
to poverty level who work for UNC,
Chapel Hill or Orange County.
“Most people out here figure that if
this was any other neighborhood all of
this would have been handled a lot bet
ter,” Campbell said. “Residents in this
area are not informed or consulted
about decisions about the landfill,” he
said. “They contact us after decisions
are already made.”
A resident in the area since 1973,
Campbell has experienced his fair share
of landfill-related difficulties. He
described numerous problems with liv
ing in the area, from the stench of the
trash and the loud sounds of trash trucks
early in the morning, to problems with
dumping in the area when the landfill is
closed.
“People come around here and drop
off dead animals in trash bags,” he said,
adding, however, that the primary con
cern was still water services.
“Getting clean water is still a problem
for the majority of the neighborhood out
here,” he said.
Similar battles have been fought by
Mildred Rogers, who has lived in the
area since 1946.
Rogers said she remembered a time
when dumpsters alongside the road led
to unwelcome surprises. “The dump
sters would draw all types of rodents
Public housing provides strong community
■ Residents say they are proud
to call public housing home and
have no desire to leave.
BY NICOLE WHITE
STAFF WRITER
Myrtle Degraffinried says she loves her
neighborhood. She has her daughters and
grandaughters around her and is proud of the
community she has helped to create.
“I love it here,” said Degraffinried, a South
Estes Apartments resident. “It’s a nice place to
be. If I didn’t say I loved it, I would be telling
a story.”
Degraffinrieri has lived in the apartment
complex, one of the 13 public housing devel
opments scattered throughout Chapel Hill, for
27 years. Her daughter Gloria Degraffinried
shares her apartment and another daughter
lives in an apartment around the comer.
Every afternoon, the playground across the
street from Myrtle Degraffinried’s home
swarms with kids just coming home from Estes
Elementary School who then shoot hoops and
play on swings.
Gloria Degraffinried said she preferred
South Estes Apartments to other neighbor
hoods she had looked into because it welcomed
her children. “You have to think about your
kids,” she said. “It’s very safe to me. No matter
where you go, there’s something bad going on
in the neighborhood.”
Gloria Degraffinried said the best way to
cope with problems in a community regardless
found work with his twin brother’s con
struction company. The move will allow
the couple to be with their daughter,
Ashley Michelle. Drew also plans to find
a job. “I like Chapel Hill,” she said. “I’m
going to miss it. It’s a good place to
stay.”
Gerald will continue to look for work.
After coming to Chapel Hill from New
York in 1985, he worked for five years at
Blue Cross Blue Shield and had no crim
inal record. Then he was incarcerated
for selling stolen property at a pawn
shop. “I was forced to resign,” Gerald
said. “It caused problems with my wife
and family, and after I was released I
had to leave home.”
Gerald said he had taken classes at
several colleges and had earned a degree
in food preparation.
But the last time he applied for work
at a local restaurant, he was turned
down for being overqualified.
“They wanted to refer me to a man
agerial training program,” Gerald said.
“But you have to have a driver’s license,
and I can’t get a driver’s license because
I need to pay tickets that I don’t have the
money to pay.”
He said his wife and five children live
in Chapel Hill, and his oldest son goes to
Georgetown University.
Gerald said he sees a cycle in the
problems many homeless people have.
FOCUS
—i -r w v — , •■
R& ** m j* / 1
*,; _
• 4* • -MB
DTH/CARABWCXMAN
Russell Suitt and his family live near the Orange County Regional Landfill. Russell's mother Latricia said garbage
trucks constantly drive in front of their house and that their tap water is undrinkable.
and insects,” she said. “I had rats eat
holes in my house.”
Rogers said a decision was eventually
made to move the dumpsters off the
roadsides and, in general, the situation
had improved over the years.
“There are still a lot of buzzards and
crows around here, but the smell has
gotten better and my water is fine
because I am not close enough to the
landfill for it to be affected.”
Rogers credited the improvements to
“It’s very easy to get into the cycle of
shelter life. They’re fed every morning,
every afternoon, every evening.” he said.
“There’s no accountability in life, no one
to answer to, no hope. Whatever oppor
tunity they have to escape the reality of
the situation, be it through drugs or alco
hol, they’ll do it.”
For now Gerald said he had a place
to sleep but has to spend his days job
hunting or at the shelter. “As long as I
diligently seek employment and stay
clean, I have a place to lay my head on a
temporary basis.”
Chapel Hill Town Council member
Edith Wiggins said she thought poverty
posed a problem in Chapel Hill. She
said the Town Council tried to help by
making sure it paid a living wage that
was competitive with other businesses.
“We have an added challenge in
Chapel Hill because it takes more to live
here than it does in neighboring coun
ties,” she said.
Moran said the struggle to overcome
poverty in Chapel Hill would continue
until income equality was achieved.
“As long aSthere is this widening gap
between the rich and the poor, as long as
there are people paid between $5 and $7
an hour, and as long as there is a lack of
public housing, there will be a problem
with the poor and homeless in Chapel
Hill.”
time. “It’s been slow-coming,” she said.
“It took a long time to come this far and
there is still a long way to go.”
But as the issue continues to progress,
answers will not be easy, said Carrboro
Alderman Jacquelyn Gist, who serves
on the Landfill Owners Group. The
LOG, which is comprised of govern
ment officials as well as landfill area res
idents, serves as a vehicle to take the
issues most pertinent to the area and
bring them to governmental attention.
of location or income, was through respect and
keeping problems in perspective.
“I try to worry about myself and my kids,”
she said. “You can start up a big commotion,
but I can’t worry about that.”
Myrtle Degraffinried’s 8-year-old grand
daughter Jerrica, a third-grader at Estes Hills
Elementary School, said she also loved the
neighborhood. “It just has a lot of kids,” she
said. “I like playing with them. We go to the
center and do our homework and then we
come outside and play.”
Jerrica and about 20 other elementary stu
dents frequent the after-school center funded by
the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Public Housing
Residents Council. The teacher at the center,
Regina Futrell, said the program worked well
and was popular with the kids. “It helps kids
with their homework and keeps them out of
trouble.”
However the living has not always been so
good in public housing. Joann Shirer, a South
Estes resident for 13 years, said the conditions
in public housing communities used to be
much worse. With four children to raise, Shirer
said she refused to accept the conditions of the
public housing apartments when she moved in.
“There were apartments that hadn’t been
painted in 19 years, water running from
upstairs down the outside walls, tiles coming
up from bathroom floors and sewage backed up
and coming out of the kitchen sinks,” she said.
Asa former volunteer and now paid director
of the Chapel Hill-Canhoro Public Housing
Residents Council, Shirer said she has seen
those conditions change. All of the apartments
are now meeting standards, and communica
C WgpSjgjj
tfllk
DTHfLORWE BRADLEY
Anthony Badgett eats his evening meal at the Inter-Faith Council Community
House. The IFC shelters 500 to 600 people each year.
Wednesday, April 1,1998
Gist said she disagreed with some res
idents’ perceptions about local govern
ment’s handling of the situation.
“As one of the strongest advocates for
the neighbors of the landfill, I do not
believe that this is a simple cut-and-dry
issue of the government’s taking advan
tage of the people,” Gist said.
“There’s no evil intent here even on
the part of the people whom I really
See LOG, Page 6
tion has improved between residents and the
housing department, she said.
“The town has put a lot of effort into
improving apartments overall in the last four
years,” Shirer said.
But for all of the improvments some resi
dents said they still did not feel like public
housing was a true home. “It’s like we don’t
have freedom here,” said Germaine Mitchell,
another South Estes Apartments resident. “The
police patrol through here and just ask you
questions. They’re trying to make it seem like
there is something going on here.”
Gloria Degraffinried said she appreciated
the police patrolling and excepted it as just
another aspect of the community. “That same
policeman might have to save one of your chil
dren,” she said.
While public housing has both pluses and
minuses, just as any community, town officials
said that the system worked well overall.
In terms of facilities and service, Chapel Hill
Housing Department Director Tina Vaughn
said Chapel Hill’s service was excellent. She
said most applicants were pleased and sur
prised at how welcome the department mad
them feel.
Ironically, though, this record of sucsess can
lead to some problems. Vaughn said there was
a long waiting list for spaces in public housing.
Only a small percentage of the applicants will
be placed in a home next year because so few
families, who feel comfortable in their com
munities, move out of public housing.
In Chapel Hill, a community noted Tor its
See HOUSING, Page 6 J
5