Join us for a special preview and discussion about East Lake Meadows: A Public Housing Story, a new PBS documentary, airing nationwide on March 24, tackling the impact of racism and poverty on public housing. Award-winning filmmakers Sarah Burns (daughter of Ken Burns) and David McMahon will show an extended excerpt from East Lake Meadows (executive produced by Ken Burns) and join a panel to discuss the national implications of their film.

East Lake Meadows was a public housing project opened by the Atlanta Housing Authority in 1970 and demolished a generation later. Initially praised for the spacious units and new construction, East Lake Meadows quickly became known for the rampant crime and violence that overwhelmed the community. The story reflects the racial bias that allowed society to neglect the housing and the community and then blame the residents for the poor conditions that arose from that disinvestment.

In the film, residents share their stories of resilience, trauma, hard work and finding joy despite the challenging conditions. Ultimately, the Atlanta Housing Authority partnered with the East Lake Community Foundation, created by a local real estate developer and philanthropist, to design a new community—the Villages of East Lake—that would contain 542 units, with 50 percent set aside for low-income residents. The new community has experienced unprecedented growth, with nearby single-family home values increasing over sixfold since the mid-1990s. The new charter school, which replaced a failing elementary school, is among the best performing in Atlanta, and a new grocery store and bank now serve the community. 

Through the stories of former residents, East Lake Meadows gives voice to some of the most marginalized people in our society and raises critical questions about how we, as a nation, have created concentrated poverty and limited housing opportunity for African-Americans and what can be done to address it.

Joining the panel will be Theodore Miller, director of Hope SF, the nation’s first large-scale partnership aimed at transforming dilapidated and segregated public housing neighborhoods into vibrant, racially equitable, mixed-income communities without mass displacement of residents.

Watch the film trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI2DbNhszx0&feature=youtu.be.