The Tompkins Houses are located in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant and are bordered by Myrtle Avenue, Park Avenue, and Tompkins Avenue. The development was constructed in 1964 and is composed of 8 buildings with over 1,700 residents. Similar to most public housing projects constructed during that period, the Tompkins Houses were designed to provide affordable housing for working-class families in fast urbanizing New York City. Block designs also beautify playgrounds and courtyards to try and facilitate social life and interaction between family members to occur.
Over the decades, the Tompkins Houses have suffered all of the same ills as plague the other NYCHA complexes—slow repairs, broken facilities, and neighborhood crime problems. But at Tompkins, there has always been a coming together in the face of adversity by residents to improve their community, formed support groups, upheld tenant organizations, and fought on citywide housing justice campaigns. Strengthened by adversity, the complex has been home to hundreds of families whose roots in the community have extended for generations.
Argubaly most prominently, rapper and cultural giant Jay-Z, also grown up in part inside the complex, is a product of the Tompkins Houses. His life has been proof that talent, imagination, and creativity can flourish inside New York City public housing. Tompkins Houses continue to stand as a source of pride and heritage, and continue to make their presence known and provide assistance to the residents inside, all things considered.
All in all, Tompkins Houses are the test and the promise of life in public housing. They are testament to the will, to the identity, and to the richness of the diversity of Brooklyn’s great cultural heritage.
