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Conservative black scholar Robert Woodson argues that "people change their behavior in order to stay in Kenilworth-Parkside. It's a class-specific solution in which poor people help themselves." Woodson, whose National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise helps promote tenant management throughout the U.S., says that "the federal and state governments have spent nearly $1 trillion over the past 20 years in a largely failed effort to fight poverty. Now Kimi and others are taking it out of the hands of professionals and giving jobs to tenants."
Gray is the first to admit that tenant management and ownership are not the only antidotes to public housing and welfare, but she insists that her efforts can be duplicated elsewhere. "There are thousands of Kimi Grays in America who are willing to try," she says. Woodson agrees: "Kimi and other leaders are the last best hope for many of these public-housing projects. Tenant managers can't offer guarantees, but they hold great promise. The only thing worse than poverty is accepting the status quo."