City pols demanded that the NYPD assign more officers to protect public housing residents after a Daily News report revealed a 31% spike in major crimes since 2009.
Public Advocate Letitia James and Councilman Ritchie Torres said police brass must shift cops and resources toward crime-ridden New York City Housing Authority buildings.
“Residents are afraid to go outside their home, to walk freely in their neighborhoods,” said Torres (D-Bronx), chairman of the Public Housing Committee, who grew up in NYCHA’s Throggs Neck Houses.
Torres and James called for more security cameras, intercoms to control access to projects, lighting upgrades and watch programs.
“Decreasing violent crime in public housing is an issue that requires a multifaceted approach,” James said.
Major crimes have jumped 31% at NYCHA’s 334 projects over the past five years, with assaults, robberies and grand larcenies all up dramatically. The rest of the city experienced a 3.3% increase over that same period, records show.
That hasn’t been the case at the Lincoln Houses in East Harlem, where major crime nearly doubled from 33 in 2009 to 60 last year. In August, six mayoral candidates, including Mayor de Blasio, spent a night there. Two days later, a 23-year-old tenant was murdered outside the building where they slept.
“All New Yorkers deserve to feel safe,” said Mayor deBlasio’s spokeswoman, Maibe Ponet. “We will work with the NYPD, NYCHA leadership and residents, elected officials and the community at large to create and implement strategies to make public housing developments safer.”
