"Affordable housing is on everyone's mind - this brilliant film shows the solution may be to make public housing well-funded, well serviced, and well managed." Mark Naison, Professor of African and African American Studies and History, Fordham University

This compelling documentary is about The Patterson Houses in the South Bronx, just one of the 341 projects in the country's largest public housing system, NYCHA. During the New Deal era, the public housing policy was established to provide the nation's working poor with safe, quality, and affordable housing. In the 1940's and 50's, all races lived and learned together in harmony in the Patterson projects. Many brilliant and accomplished people came out of The Patterson over the years. Tragically, by 2018, it was the sight of the biggest gang takedown in the history of the Bronx. The people who lived in the Patterson tell the intimate story of what happened in one project over seven decades, mirroring the stories in all housing projects throughout New York City, not unlike housing developments throughout the nation.



Grade Level: 10 -12, College, Adults
US Release Date: 2026     Copyright Date: 2026

Reviews "The Patterson is the most important film ever made about public housing in New York, and a much needed corrective to widely held stereotypes about Bronx history. The film illuminates how this project was a magical place to live when it opened in the 1950's, filled with families from many different backgrounds who slept with their doors open, benefited from excellent public services, and helped raise one another's children. More importantly, it shows how the Patterson projects could be a great place to live today if different arms of government made the same investments in it as they did when it opened. Affordable housing is on everyone's mind - this brilliant film shows the solution may be to make public housing well-funded, well serviced, and well managed." Mark Naison, Professor of African and African American Studies and History, Fordham University, Co-author, Before the Fires: An Oral History of African American Life in the Bronx from the 1930s to the 1960s "The Patterson lifts up the voices of public housing residents and documents a time when public housing fulfilled its promise as a vehicle for creating community. This film shows the value of public housing in providing a stable environment where people flourished socially and economically. While the trends leading to the decline of public housing also affected The Patterson, the film shows the strong bonds that survived even difficult times." Sarah Gerecke, Adjunct Professor of Urban Planning, New York University, former Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Housing Counseling, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development "The Patterson begins in the 1950s, when tenants of a large Bronx public housing project felt fortunate to have found homes and thrived with the opportunities it offered them for education, recreation, and a rich community life. As the buildings deteriorated and crucial supplementary programs disappeared, drugs and gun violence grew, and a sense of hopelessness spread. Until today, when community activists, young people, and former tenants are banding together to 'take back our community.' This documentary provides a realistic picture of the struggles faced by many Americans and inspires with how individuals are stepping up and taking action to better their community." Lizabeth Cohen, Professor of American Studies and History, Harvard University, Author, Saving America's Cities: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban Age