Van Dyke Houses, ca. 1950s

First known as the Brownsville Houses Extension, the Van Dyke Houses were built in 1955 as an expansion of the neighborhood's first NYCHA Public Housing project. The Houses cost 18.5 million dollars to construct and consist of 22 high-rise towers that encompass over 1,600 units.

Before the end of World War II, Brownsville was a largely Jewish neighborhood. According to Wendell E. Pritchett, author of "Brownsville, Brooklyn: Blacks, Jews, and the Changing Face of the Ghetto," the New York City Housing Authority was the only city agency to give the neighborhood any attention. Public housing developments went up in predominantly Black or "changing" neighborhoods, like Fort Greene, South Bronx, and Brownsville in the late 1940s. According to Pritchett: "these areas were chosen to relieve the pressure from other neighborhoods fighting black incursion." Brownsville Houses and their extension, the Van Dyke Houses, were a poster-child for what meaningful racial integration might look like in the early 1950s. The Brownsville Houses were the first and only public housing project that was not segregated. As principal, the demographics of the Houses reflected those of the area, and tenants were about 40% Jewish and 60% Black newcomers. Pritchett described this era as a moment of a "comity of interest between Jewish and Black advocacy groups." However, the optimism about what the project meant in terms of race-relations was short-lived. By 1963, "white flight," had reached Brownsville. Working-class whites of the Van Dyke Houses enjoyed upward mobility in the post-war years and left the area after reaching economic prosperity, meanwhile newer Black residents of Brownsville were not afforded the opportunities.

Just seven years after the Van Dyke Houses were completed, nearly all of the Jewish population had left and 72% of its residents were Black and15% were Puerto Rican. The Houses experienced an increase in crime and violence in the 1960s. One such event ended in a "riot call," that brought dozens of officers on the scene and led to 23 arrests. Some tenants chalked up increased disorder to roaming youths who lived in Van Dyke and targeted elderly Jewish residents, though security argued the trouble came from residents who lived nearby but not in the projects. To quell problems, NYCHA assembled a team of social workers, tenant associations, and various other community groups to work on long-term solutions and "teach understanding for others."

Today, the Van Dyke Houses are part of Brooklyn's Community District 16. Of this district, 20% of its population is housed in NYCHA buildings, and Van Dyke houses over 4,000 residents.