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Word: tenants (lookup in dictionary) (lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
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...neighbors, she says. Plumbing was broken and heating was, at best, intermittent. So in 1981, deciding "things couldn't get much worse and we had to do something," Gray petitioned the District government to let residents take control. The mayor eventually agreed, and in January 1982 Gray's tenant management corporation began collecting rents, making repairs and running things for itself. What the corporation got was a run-down facility with bursting pipes, flooding basements and no one trained in physical-plant management. "It was crisis that brought us together," Gray says. Welfare mothers learned plumbing skills, children were pressed...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Washington D.C. Turning Public Housing Over to Resident Owners | 12/12/1988 | See Source »

This success led Gray to lobby Congress for changes in housing laws giving tenants the right to buy their homes from the government. The law went into effect in 1987. Prominent Republicans, including Ronald Reagan, flocked to her cause, but Kimi Gray is no conservative ideologue. Her success depends on Great Society programs such as job training to drive home traditional conservative values. "We want to bring families back together, restore our pride and respect," she says. Congressman Jack Kemp, another fan of Gray's who co-sponsored the 1987 legislation, calls tenant management a "synthesis of New Deal programs...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Washington D.C. Turning Public Housing Over to Resident Owners | 12/12/1988 | See Source »

...project that have paid off in myriad ways: in the past six years dependence on welfare has dwindled from 85% to 2%, administrative costs of the project have dropped by nearly two-thirds, and teenage pregnancies have been cut in half. Along the way, Gray's brand of tenant management has saved the District and Federal Government about $5.7 million in operating expenses. Says Congressman Kemp: "She is inspirational, and her mind is breathtaking. She might have been born poor, but there is no poverty...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Washington D.C. Turning Public Housing Over to Resident Owners | 12/12/1988 | See Source »

...troublemaker. "I'd go to meetings and get so mad I'd yell and turn the place out," she says. Politicians tried to block her plans, so Gray used a tool no politician can ignore: votes. In 1976 she organized and registered to vote 12,000 public-housing tenants. As chairman of the citywide public-housing board, Gray is now a local political power of the first order. The success at Kenilworth-Parkside hasn't come without struggle. Poverty can % drive out hope, and Gray admits that at the start of the tenant management struggle, "there were nights I cried...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Washington D.C. Turning Public Housing Over to Resident Owners | 12/12/1988 | See Source »

Slowly, attitudes began to change, aided by new tenant rules that Gray admits are neither gentle nor subtle. Example: residents must take turns serving as hall and building captains. "People don't throw trash on the ground when they know it soon will be their turn to pick it up," she says. Tenants can use the day-care center, but only if they are working or looking for work. Residents are expected to take care of their property, which means fixing broken toilets and sinks themselves. One member of each family must take six weeks of training in such subjects...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Washington D.C. Turning Public Housing Over to Resident Owners | 12/12/1988 | See Source »

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