Durham Answers

Durham’s parks are facing challenges, but meaningful progress is underway. From new playgrounds and expanded trails to major investments in recreation and park accessibility, Durham is working to build a stronger park system for everyone.

Check out the latest edition of our Durham Answers video series 🎥 to hear from Senior Planner Austin Bowman about park improvements, Connect Durham, and the ongoing work to address lead contamination at five city parks. In each episode of Durham Answers, we bring you an expert to answer questions asked by residents about the top issues facing our community.

In our premiere episode, we tackle a critical question: What are we doing to reduce homelessness?When neighbors wait months or years for stable housing, health, employment, and family stability all suffer. 

But the core issue isn't just a lack of shelter—it's a system that wasn't built to respond fast enough.

In Durham, we’re treating homelessness as a solvable system failure, not an endless crisis.

Through a new, unified Homelessness Strategic Framework, the City of Durham and Durham County—alongside community partners—are building a proactive response.

By securing housing options in advance, removing financial barriers, and using real-time data, our goal is to cut the time from outreach to a signed lease down to 30 days.