New Lighting Installed at Boulevard Houses in New Lots

Pictured: the Boulevard Houses. Image via Google Maps

NEW LOTS, BROOKLYN — The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) has finished installing 504 new exterior lights at the Boulevard Houses in New Lots, part of a $210 million plan to improve safety at some of the city's most crime-prone developments.

In 2014, Boulevard Houses was one of fifteen NYCHA developments responsible for 20 percent of public housing crime, according to de Blasio's office.

A shocking reminder of that reality came in June of that year, when two children were stabbed in a Boulevard Houses elevator — one of whom, 6-year-old Prince Joshua Avitto, died. The New York Times reported that at the time, the complex's 18 buildings had just 5 security cameras, all of them in a single property.

(A suspect, Daniel St. Hubert, was arrested several days later and charged with murder. St. Hubert had reportedly suffered from mental illness for years.)

One month later, de Blasio launched the Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety (MAP), designed to improve public safety and environmental conditions at particularly troubled projects.

According to de Blasio's office, since 2014, NYCHA has spent $140 million on security equipment for MAP properties, including new lighting, cameras and secure doors.

There are currently 22 cameras operating at Boulevard Houses, according to City Hall, with more on the way.

In a Wednesday press release, the mayor's office said that overall crime at MAP developments fell 11.2 percent between fiscal year 2014 and FY 2015, besting the city's overall crime reduction rate of 6.9 percent during that period. Crime has also fallen several percent at the Boulevard Houses, according to the administration.

By the end of this year, new lighting will have been installed at an additional six housing developments, the administration said, including the Ingersoll Houses in Fort Greene and the Van Dyke Houses in Brownsville.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misreported the number of cameras operating at Boulevard Houses. The error has been corrected.