Thread by @blkwomenradical

🎥: About Radical D.C. Organizer, Kimi Gray.

A native Washingtonian, Kimi Gray was a national figure on public housing because of her efforts to revitalize a Northeast Washington community where she lived for more than three decades.

Source: C-SPAN.

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Chronically neglected by the D.C. Housing Authority, the residents were often without heat or hot water for weeks at a time. Kimi took on management duties for her development. 

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Within six months, Gray organized and hired residents and instilled discipline and a sense of hope that revived the entire complex.

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Perhaps best known as a fierce advocate of policies to convert inner-city public housing projects into resident-owned and -managed properties, Gray was president and chief executive officer of the Kenilworth-Parkside Resident Management Corp. for the past 18 years.

Among the first of its kind, the tenant-run organization purchased the 464-unit Kenilworth-Parkside projects in 1988, w/ the support of federal housing rehabilitation funds, began an overhaul of the neglected apartment buildings between the Anacostia River & Interstate 295.

In 1988, she co-founded the National Association of Resident Management Corporations and served as chairwoman of its board of directors for the past 12 years. Before her passing , she was finalizing plans to host the association's August conference in Washington.

Gray also created an initiative called College Here We Come that enabled 600 youths from her public housing development to attain higher education. The initiative made national news.

🎥: C-SPAN: “Life and Career of Kimi Gray.” Ms. Gray was interviewed as part of a series of “Washington Profiles”.

c-span.org/video/?10699-1…

Sources: The Policy Circle and “Public Housing Advocate Kimi Gray Dies” by Louie Estrada for The Washington Post.

washingtonpost.com/archive/local/…