NCCU basketball coach's affordable housing project for Raleigh receives more funding

It’s a vision the North Carolina Central University basketball team has had for years, guided by lessons he learned as a child.

“I was raised by my mother and my grandmother. They made sure, ‘Regardless of your success, never, ever forget where you came from,’” Moton recalled.

He said he remembers praying with his grandmother and the big dreams and expectations she had for him.

“She asked God to watch over me and protect because ‘he’s going to be really special and change the world someday.’”

It’s a moment Moton still gets emotional about decades later.

“Her voice is on my shoulder; I’m always hearing her. I didn’t think I was going to change the world at 10 years old, let alone my neighborhood,” he said.

Yet, here he is, making his mark in his old neighborhood. The basketball coach has a park named after him and a statue. Just across the street, on the corner of Idlewild Avenue and east Lane Street, a plan is in the works to build affordable housing in the same area where enslaved people were first able to own their own homes.

Now, a new generation of people will get that opportunity.

“They’re employed; they’re contributing to community … They just haven’t been able to afford to own a piece of the community,” said Kevin Campbell, the executive director of Raleigh Area Land Trust.

Moton co-founded Raleigh Raised Development. Now, he’s working with The Raleigh Area Land Trust to develop the 1.8 acres of land into 18 cottage-style homes – 14 for sale and four for rent.

Down payment assistance for each for-sale unit is proposed to go directly to first-time homebuyers who apply and are eligible to receive assistance through the City’s Homebuyer Assistance Program.

“You’re giving people, not only a chance at affordable housing, but affordable housing with ownership. That’s what our community has lacked over all these years,” Moton said. “I can recall in the 80s when no one cared about this parcel of land. It was filled with drugs and violence and crime. It just wasn’t a place for a child to be raised.”

Campbell said this $8.2 million project honors what the community once was – and what it could be in the future.

“Home ownership is not just housing, but it’s an opportunity to build wealth and impact future generations,” he said. “I’m excited that our city would say, ‘Let’s address those past wrong in a significant way, not just in a token way.’”