# Buddy Gray

Stanley "Buddy" Gray (1950 – 15 November 1996) was a controversial political activist and social worker who lived in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Gray used 1960s-style confrontation and intimidation to persuade Cincinnati officials to pour money into his low-income housing projects. He was known for an "in-your-face, shout-them-down style of confrontation," and described himself as "a hard-nosed radical, a street fighter for street people." His allies saw him as a "charitable humanitarian friend of the homeless," but his enemies saw "a poverty pimp" who wanted to turn Over-the-Rhine into a "super ghetto." Gray's legacy continues through the Drop Inn Center homeless shelter and ReSTOC, a low-income housing organization that later merged with another non-profit to form Over-the-Rhine Community Housing.