An artist’s rendering of Cottages of Idlewild. (Photo: Raleigh Raised Development)
LeVelle Moton will never fully escape the trauma of growing up poor in southeast Raleigh. The survivor’s remorse is always present.
The former high school and college basketball star who has become the winningest coach at his alma mater, N.C. Central University, made it out of his high-crime, high poverty neighborhood when many friends did not. From a tight circle of nine friends, he said, three are dead, three are incarcerated and three others, including Moton, are left to fight the good fight.
LeVelle Moton (Photo: Courtesy of N.C. Housing Coalition)
There’s guilt associated with his success and survival because Moton, 50, doesn’t believe there was anything “significantly special” about him as he grew in Raleigh’s Lane Street public housing community. He could have easily been one of the young men who did not escape drug-related dangers and the debilitating poverty that claimed friends and family and too often defined his community.
“I was tiptoeing the line of jail and incarceration just like most kids in my neighborhood because you become a product of your environment,” Moton said. “So, now that you make it out of these circumstances, you can’t forget about the people, the family, the cousins, the friends, the loved ones and associates, all of those people who remain in those conditions.”
Remembering where he is from
Moton spoke to NC Newsline ahead of this week’s North Carolina Affordable Housing Conference in Raleigh where he will deliver the keynote address on Thursday. He has not forgotten those left behind, keeping a promise he made to his mother, Hattie, and grandmother, Mattie McDougald.
In addition to coaching duties at NCCU, Moton has been working for several years to bring affordable housing to the fast-changing Southeast Raleigh neighborhood. He speaks candidly about the gentrification that’s taken hold in his old neighborhood and threatens to erase its identity as a historically Black community.
“A lot of people have been displaced,” Moton said. “There are a lot of people who didn’t understand gentrification. They either, Number One, sold their houses or were asked to move. So now, we’re trying to educate our community on the importance of homeownership and owning something.”
NC Newsline recently wrote about the challenges residents who stay in their homes in Raleigh’s traditional Black neighborhoods face due to development pressures and rising taxes.
Even those who show up in the neighborhood purporting to be saviors do not escape Moton’s scrutiny. “Why are they now so passionate about what happens in Southeast Raleigh?” he wonders.
“No one was passionate when crack cocaine infiltrated our neighborhood and people were either selling it to take care of their families or using it to deal with the fact that they couldn’t,” he said. “No one was coming to rescue me when I was waving my white flag saying, man, can somebody help my mama? Can somebody help us with life insurance? Can someone help us with health insurance? Can help someone help us with dental insurance?”
Moton’s company, Raleigh Raised Development (RRD), has partnered with Raleigh Area Land Trust (RALT) and Haven Design | Build to build the Cottages of Idlewild, which is an 18-unit affordable housing community on 1.7 acres of city-owned property. RRD has secured $8.3 million in funding for the housing development. The affordable housing community will be built on the site where Moton grew up.
Cottages of Idlewild will offer four rental units to tenants earning low-and moderate incomes and 14 homes to first-time homebuyers at or below 60% percent of area median income. The project is being developed based on the Community Land Trust Model. Under that model, buyers purchase the home only and lease the land at a nominal rate for a minimum of 99 years. That ensures the property remains affordable. Meanwhile, property taxes are only assessed on the value of the home, which means that tax bills are lower than market-rate homes. Resale prices of homes are restricted to ensure they remain affordable to future generations, which creates opportunities for individuals and families to develop equity and generational wealth.
New construction like this in Southeast Raleigh is part of a national trend. Almost 5 million new housing units, mostly single-family homes, have been added nationwide since 2020, according to new data. (Photo: Anthony Pope, Men of Southeast Raleigh)
Safe and secure housing, Moton contends, is the engine that makes life go, calling it the most “fundamental component of living in America.”
“Once you have a roof over your head, you tend to be able to deal with everything else that can come along with it,” Moton said. “For example, it’s raining outside right now, right? A bad storm. Those who don’t have a roof over their heads, what are you doing right now? Can you imagine staying in the shelter, not knowing where you’re going to stay tomorrow?”
Housing isn’t Moton’s only philanthropic endeavor. He’s also CEO and founder of the Velle Cares Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is to serve and assist community-based organizations that promote health, education, and life skills for children and families in at risk situations.
Each year, Moton, hosts annual events such as the “Back to School Community Day Event” and the “Single Mother’s Salute” to give back to his community.
An intimate understanding of family trauma
Moton grew up in a house led by a single mother after his father left when Moton was four years old. His father’s departure still stings, all of these years later. It was worse than if he had never known him, Moton said.
“Right to this day, it’s one of the most devastating things that ever happened to me because for four years I knew him and then he just left and never came back,” Moton said. “I would have preferred for him to never be around than to stay with me for four years and then leave.”
Moton’s “Back to School Community Day Event” serves over 700 kids and families each year by providing them with book bags, school supplies, giveaways, shoes, haircuts, and entertainment. It’s another way to honor the memory of his grandmother, who died in 1985.
“I was one of the have-nots, ashamed because I didn’t have the latest styles and shoes and clothes,” Moton said. “So when you see everything that I’m doing, I’m not just some person who just threw my name on something to make it look good for some headlines. This ain’t even business for me, it’s really just personal. Everything that I do is personal because I’ve experienced it.”
His grandmother often told him that the two most important days in a person’s life is the day they are born and the day that they figure out why they were born.
“When you leave this earth, if people remember you as a basketball player, then you’ve done a poor job of living,” she would tell him.