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Where are you? Not a zone, a place.

Northern New Jersey :-)

The roof overhang may be causing issues because of the lack of rain. If that is true, then anything in that bed will need watering to grow well.

Boxwoods are about the only evergreen my deer won't touch. I'm assuming you have a type of English box. I have some sort of Korean box that grows fairly quickly, and may be worth seeking out. Green Mountain is a Korean hybrid that fairly quickly reaches 6 ft.

The roses won't like the lack of sun, and I don't like the look of hydrangeas in the winter.

Deer will enjoy both the roses and the hydrangeas. Appropriately chosen grasses would hide most of the brick and are deer resistant, but you'd have a period every early spring when they'd be cut back and you're waiting for regrowth.

Fence out the deer or you will always be limited by the pressure they exert. Even kinds that they don't eat may sometimes be mauled by bucks trying to get rid of velvet.

Look at the great Rutgers website rating deer resistance. It’s especially useful for you in NJ. The other best intelligence can be gathered from your own Neighborhood. See what does well. Deer herds seem to have very localized palates. Also you don’t have to fence your whole property. There are examples of unobtrusive fencing around foundation plantings. Sometimes it only needs to be in the winter. We wish you luck and pray that your boxes don’t succumb to the blight that’s doomed them too. (Sorry to inject that sad news..)

I have a garden in NJ (Zone 7), and DEER. I have the following plants that the deer have ignored over the years (given your location of partial sun):

Japanese holly (Ilex crenata) and holly species (though I HAVE SEEN them nibble on them under heavy snow conditions, still, I find it a relatively fast grower, mine seems forever out of control anyway.)

Cherry Laurel (it's a pretty fast grower too but flowers will attract bees)

rhododendrons

boxwood (so far, I have seen no evidence of blight)

Fargesia bamboo (its' a clumping species, NOT a spreader)

In sunnier areas, I use ornamental grasses, crape myrtles, butterfly bush (which is semi-deciduous many Winters), and Lilacs.

P.S., my grounds were hedged with barberry but I HATE that plant and ripped them all out..., thorns are awful!